WITH THE NATIONAL fiUARB 
ON TflE BORDER 



OUR NATIONAL MILITARY PROBLEM 



>«P" 



Capf. Irving Golf McCaim 




Ciass. 

COFSUGHT DEPOsm 



WITH THE 
NATIONAL (lUAED 
ON THE BOEDER 




Hon. Frank O. Lowden 
Govornor of Illinois 

Formerly Lieut. -Colonel of llie First Illinois Infantrn 



WITH THE MTIOML 
GUARD ON THE BORDER 



OUR NATIONAL MILITARY 
PROBLEM 



BY 

CAPTAIN IRVING GOFF McCANN, A.M., B.D. 

Chaplain of the First Infantry Illinois National Guard 



ILLUSTRATED 



ST. LOUIS 
C. V. MOSBY COMPANY 

1917 



?ii^ 

.i"iii 



Copyright, 1917, by C. Y. Mosby Company 



■f^ 



Press at 

13 1317 C. F. Mosby Company 

St. Louis 

>CI.A467449 



DEDICATED 

TO 

MY MOTHER 

Sarah Ann McGuire-McCann 



[a 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 
The Cause 21 

CHAPTER II 
Mexican Intervention 39 

■ CHAPTER III 

The Japanese Problem .......... 52 

CHAPTER IV 

An Adequate Military and Navaij Program ... 61 

CHAPTER V 

The Mobilization of the Guard . 90 

CHAPTER VI 
Entrainment .............. 109 

CHAPTER VII 
On the Border 121 

CHAPTER VIII 

Handicaps of the National Guard 174 

9 



Contents 

CHAPTER IX 

The Tragedies of a Bloodless Campaign .... 208 

CHAPTER X 
Humorous Incidents 220 

APPENDIX 

History of the First Illinois Infantry .... 247 



10 



PREFACE 

'T'HE purpose of this book is to give a brief his- 
-^ torical sketeli of Mexico, one which will serve 
as a background for the past six years of turbu- 
lence; to give a resume of the most important 
events of these six years and to consider our fu- 
ture policy towards Mexico, involving the desir- 
ability or undesirability of intervention ; to review 
the Quasi-Mexican campaign of 191G from the 
standpoint of the National Guard and the influ- 
ences, good and evil, which the President's Call to 
Arms had upon it. To go further than this : it is my 
purpose to indicate some of the drawbacks under 
which the Guard has labored in the past as well 
as the probable effect of its reorganization and its 
usefulness thereunder as a second line of defence ; 
to consider briefly the problem of an adequate mili- 
tary program ; to diagnose the sensitiveness of our 
Japanese-nervous-system and to evaluate our anti- 
militaristic, peace at any price, lovey-clove}^, didn't 
raise my son to be a soldier, agitators. My in- 
timate relationship with both the serving officers 
and men has given me a unique opportunity to in- 
terpret the feelings and mental attitudes of the 
soldiers in the field and of their families at home 
as well as an insight into the problems and causes 

11 



With the National Guard on the Border 

from which these mental attitudes spring. Finally, 
in the appendix, I have placed a brief history of 
the First Illinois Infantry, as fine an organization 
as there is in the United States, and affectionately 
known to all lUinoisans as the ''Dandy First." 

I take this opportunity to thank all those Avho 
have assisted me in the preparation of this vol- 
ume. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has been very 
generous in placing at my disposal its large col- 
lection of Avar illustrations. 

My publishers have been obliging and courte- 
ous throughout and have assisted me Avherever 
possible. 

Especially do I wish to express my indebtedness 
to Dr. C. V. Mosby at whose suggestion I under- 
took to put in permanent form the Memories of 
the Tour of Duty of 1916. 

Captain Irving Goff McCanw, 

Cliaplaiu First Infantry Illinois National Guard. 
Webster Groves, Mo. 



12 



FOREWORD 

Headquarters First Illinois Infantry, 
Chicago, May 14th, 1917. 

SINCE placing my manuscript in the hands of 
the publisher, the President has again called 
our regiment to the Colors. For nearly two 
months we have been in the Federal service, war 
with Germany has been declared. Officers ' Reserve 
Training Corps have been formed, the Ladies ' Aid 
Society of the United States, otherwise known as 
Congress, has quilted some form of Universal 
Service, and the Commissions of Great Britain 
and France have come with their great messages 
of fraternal love and masculine challenge to wel- 
come us into the World War, and to invite our 
Army to actively participate on the battle fields 
of France, and to teach our inexperienced Repub- 
lic some of the lessons which they have learned 
at a terrible price. 

Personally I am glad. I have felt for some time 
and especially since my experience during the sum- 
mer of 1916 in the mobilization camps on the Mexi- 
can border, that the United States was lacking in 
National pride. Patriotism was ebbing fast, com- 
mercialism and selfishness were eating away the 
very heart of our National existence. 

13 



With the National Guard on the Border 

The mothers of America have learned to think 
only of their 0A^al firesides and the fathers of 
America to become selfishly imbued with the idea 
that if the nation is to be protected, the other fel- 
low should be allowed to do it. War will change 
all of this. Instead of a National patriotism^ with 
its narrowness, bigotry and hatred, there will come 
out of this world cataclysm, a World patriotism. 
The mothers of America Avill become mothers to 
humanity in all the sections of the earth, and the 
fathers of America will vie Avith each other as to 
who will make the greatest sacrifice for their 
country. 

If Jesus had lived as other men, his religion and 
his philosophy would have passed awaj^ centuries 
ago. It was his death as a martyr that gave impetus 
to his teaching and that has made the philosoph^^ 
and the religion he taught echo around the world. 
So will it be in this baptism of blood. Every sol- 
dier who dies upon the field of battle, in the deten- 
tion camp, or base hospital, will be one more link 
in the universal chain that shall bind together the 
new civilization of the Avorld. Every home made 
sorrowful by the loss of a son, husband, or father, 
will be one more altar upon Avhich to burn the ever- 
lasting incense of country and humanity. 

A new France, a new England, and a new Ger- 
many will arise from the ashes of their now dev- 
astated countries and a ncAv United States will 

14 



With the National Guard on the Border 

come forth from this war with higher ideals, a 
purer iDatriotism, and a greater love for all the 
world. 

Some questions are being asked by almost every- 
body, which I think it may be possible for me to 
answer at this time. The most important of all 
these questions is, "Should we, and will we go to 
France!" We most certainly should go, and we 
will go. 

The earlier motives that may have brought on 
this colossal struggle, commercial and political 
jealousy and greed, have been entirely swallowed 
up in a larger issue, the liberty and freedom of 
mankind. It is now a war of democracy against 
tyranny, of right against wrong, and America must 
do ever^^thing in her power (which means men 
as well as money) to crush forever the ideas that 
are now held to and fought for by the Central 
Allies.' When a world struggle is being waged 
for freedom and humanity, the Stars and Stripes 
should and must be flung to the battle's front. 
The sooner this is done, the better it will be for 
all concerned. 

We must not count on a short war. Eussia is 
out of the struggle for all practical purposes for 
at least a year. The reorganization of her domes- 
tic affairs, the prevention of counter-revolutions, 
and the gaining of a new momentum will take 
many months. This releases the pressure on the 

15 



With the National Guard on the Border 

Eastern front, and gives Germany several million 
additional soldiers to resist the attacks of the 
French and English on the West. Every man that 
the United States can raise shonld be sent to the 
battle fields of Europe at once, or as fast as Ave 
can equip and officer them. Training there, not 
here, is the only reasonable thing. We are no 
longer spectators of the great war, — we are par- 
ticipators, and we can not satisfy our consciences 
by feeding peanuts to the elephants; as a nation 
we have to don our uniforms and hit the sawdust 
path. Then when we reach the arena we must take 
possession of one of the rings in the great circus 
and perform so well that we shall eventually be 
sent to the center ring where the Stars and Stripes 
shall lead all the nations of tlie earth in its sac- 
rifices, as well as its enjoyment of liberty, and free- 
dom. 

Only one thing prevents the present war from 
settling forever the issues of right and wrong, mil- 
itarism and peace, world avarice and world fra- 
ternity, and that is the presence of Japan on the 
side of the Allies. Logically her ambitions are 
the same as those of Germany, and she should, 
from every point of view, be with the Central 
Allies. I should not be at all surprised to see her 
swing to that side; and if she does, it will pro- 
long the present war, but at the end, the world 
may look forward to a lasting peace, with democ- 

16 



With the National Guard on the Border 

racy forever enthroned as the modus operandi of 
all human governments. The much hoped for 
Parliament of Nations will then be assured. 

The price in money and life will certainly be 
stupendous. The American people have no com- 
prehension of just how much it is going to cost 
them to assist in redeeming the earth from mis- 
government, but when we think of the free nations 
that will be born, what matters the cost? The 
finest thing that I have heard from any source 
since this present Call to Arms came from the 
lips of Danny Goodman's father, our splendid lit- 
tle Jewish prize fighter. Danny's father was born 
in Russian Poland and as a boy came to America 
as the Land of Promise for the oppressed of his 
race. Said he to a rich Hebrew jeweler of Chi- 
cago, whose utterances had not been very patri- 
otic: "I tell you, sir, every Jewish family should 
give a boy to the government at this time to show 
our appreciation for the liberty that we Jews en- 
joy under the Stars and Stripes." 

Another question which bothers a great many 
people at this time is, why the rest of our National 
Guard regiments have not been called to the Col- 
ors, and why the new army that we are to raise 
should not be officered by the Regular Army and 
National Guard rather than by a lot of untrained 
men that are going up to Officers' Reserve Train- 
ing Camps. The reason is simple. The War De- 

17 



With the National Guard on the Border 

partment has had its hands tied awaiting the pro- 
gram of Congress, and there was no need of call- 
ing more National Guard regiments than were of 
value for actual patrol work. They will undoubt- 
edly all be called in the near future, as soon as 
Congress gets through with its knitting. 

As for the Reserve Officers' Camps, they are 
being organized to develop whatever latent mil- 
itary talent and training the young men of our 
country have, and from the thousands Avho go to 
these camps the best will be chosen for officers in 
our new conscript army; they will not displace 
the good men in the regular army, nor the trained 
men in the Guard. The Eegular Army lieutenant 
will probably be made a major, the National 
Guard lieutenant will probably be made a captain, 
and the Reserve Officers' Camps, the Regular 
Army sergeants, and the National Guard non- 
commissioned officers will provide the lieutenants 
for our new arnty of a million men. At this time 
no one must be jealous of anyone else, we must 
all pull for Uncle Sam and be brothers-in-arms. 
The cynical look which the Regular Army some- 
times shoots at the National Guard and the Na- 
tional Guard is now beginning to give the Officers' 
Reserve fellows, must be banished from every face. 
We will all get a just rating for whatever our mer- 
its deserve, and we must have a warm feeling of 

18 



With the National Guard on the Border 

friendship for every branch of our Country's 
service. 

Finally there is Congress. We are all waiting 
for it to do something definite. The War Depart- 
ment is doing everything in its power to put the 
country in a state of defense and to prepare and 
equip a great army, but politics comes first with 
Congress, even before the honor and safety of the 
country. The men with German constituencies 
continue to block the way to an effective war; 
others are so afraid if they vote for an efficient 
conscription law they will be defeated at home that 
they are allowing their personal interests to af- 
fect their duty as patriots. Not all, but some Con- 
gressmen are the Country's greatest enemies at 
present. Oh! For an election now, so that we 
could clean house with some of these fellows and 
give the President, the Navy, and the Ami}'- the 
support they need! 



19 



JVith the National Guard 
on the Border 



CHAPTEE I 
THE CAUSE 

A /TEXICO, said to be the most beautiful country 
•^'•*- in the World, has had a history similar to 
that of Sicily, of which Stoddard has said : 

' ' The history of Sicily for three thousand years, 
is little save the record of her warlike suitors, all 
of whom in their desperate struggles to possess 
her, often trampled her beneath their feet and well 
nigh caused her death from violence and loss of 
blood. No spot on earth has suffered more because 
of its desirable site and fatal gift of beauty. The 
number and variety of these conquerors is bewil- 
dering, but they at least attest the fascination of 
the object of their possession. Phoenicians, 
Greeks, Carthagenians, Eomans, Goths, Byzan- 
tines, Normans, Spaniards, French and Italians 
have, during three millenniums, succeeded one an- 
other here and have all left behind them traces of 
their sway." 

21 



With the National Guard on the Border 

AMthin less than four centuries Mexico has wit- 
nessed the domination of the Aztecs, the Span- 
iards and the French, not to speak of a thousand 
internal revolutions and our own brief war of 1846. 

While our countr}^ has moved forward for a 
hundred and twenty-five 3^ears with but one Civil 




The boundary line between the heaven of American liberty and 
internal peace and the purgatory of Mexican tilth, disease, il- 
literacy, despotism and revolution. These monuments on the in- 
ternational boundai-y stretch from six miles west of El Paso, where 
the Rio Grande ceases to be the boundary, to West Coast. They 
are presumed to be so placed that from one of them the next one 
in both directions may be seen with the field glass. 



war, Mexico has had so many revolutions that it 
would require a counting machine to list them. 
Why is this difference? What is the Cause of 
their eternal misery and unrest and of our pres- 

22 



The Cause 

ent difficulties wdth them? Is the fault with their 
governors and leaders or is it with the people 
themselves? In the United States our institutions 
have been stable; the Church and State have ful- 
filled their functions without conflict, schools have 
been established everywhere ; business, science and 
the arts have progressed unhindered. In Mexico, 
whose modern history antedates our own by a hun- 
dred years, nothing has been stable, the State and 
the Church have always quarrelled mth each other 
and these quarrels have frequently led to blood- 
shed; no schools have been established, except in 
the cities for the rich, business has been conducted 
with foreign capital, during recesses between wars, 
and today Mexico is in turn a fresh wound and a 
clot of blood on the Western Hemisphere." More- 
over, without the protection of the Monroe Doc- 
trine, there is no doubt that Mexico would be a de- 
pendency of France or some other European Gov- 
ernment. The Cause, to put it simply, is that Mex- 
ico is not prepared for self-government, having no 
capable, unselfish leaders and no stable, virile, 
justice-loving people, and without these elements, 
there can be no real democratic government. The 
leaders in Mexico's past history have been selfish 
demagogues, full of the lust of power and gold, 
and the common people have gladly accepted any 
leadership which offered them a living without 
toil. On the other hand, the rich Mexicans, who 

23 



With the National Guard on the Border 

boast of their Spanish Mood, and despise their 
fellow countr^Tiien as mongrels and Indians, do 
not care who governs as long as they are protected 
in their vast estates. Mexico is a land of the rich 
and the extremelj^ poor ; Avhere the rich are so rich 
they do not care what happens to the government 
and the poor are so poor that fighting under any 
handit or general is the easiest and best existence 
they can hope to have. 

Mexican revolts have always been inspired by 
personal gain. From the days of the Aztec, whose 
government was harsher even than that of the 
Spaniard, misrule is all that the people have 
known. Out of this misrule, ^^ith its dual offspring 
of land grabbing and intermarriage, the sorrows 
of Mexico have come. The Spaniard instituted 
the feudal system in Mexico, carving out huge es- 
tates for the individual Spaniard and leaving to 
each Indian village a square league of land. These 
leagues have been held by the villagers in common 
and cultivated under the old Aztec system. The 
Indians were allowed to remain in abject igno- 
rance, and knowing no higher standards and being 
naturally submissive, they were satisfied. But the 
Spaniard, while he despised the native Indians, did 
not maintain his racial integrity and consequently 
there has grown up in Mexico a mixed race of Mez- 
ItizGS who now outnuml)er the Spaniards six to one. 
These mixed peoples are always discontented, for, 

24 



> 




With the National Guard on the Border 

having usually a broader outook and a better edu- 
cation than the Indian, they are not satisfied to 
remain in the sphere of the Indian. 

Another factor which has led to the present un- 
happy condition of Mexico is that the original 
square league of land has been taken aAvay from 
the Indians through the scheming of the Cientifico 
party in order to force the Indians to labor on 
their estates; as long as the native Indians had 
their square league, they were relatively independ- 
ent of the great land owners, having the choice of 
laboring or not laboring as they pleased. A¥ith the 
influx of European and American capital during 
the Diaz regime, the natives found that they could 
secure better wages from the foreigners than from 
the Spaniards and so ceased to labor for the great 
landowners. 

To remedy this, the Cientifico part}^ led Pres- 
ident Diaz to dispossess the Indians of their lands, 
by force of arms and a great deal of bloodshed. 
AVith what result! At the end of President Diaz's 
regime the land which so many have thought he 
governed wisely and well, was in a volcanic condi- 
tion. The peon classes, as illiterate and incapable 
as ever of self-government, Avere now dispossessed 
of their homes and ready for any murderous, rev- 
olutionar}^ scheme that would furnish them with 
meat and drink. A view of Mexican statistics ^^all 
be illuminating. There are, in Mexico, one million 

26 



The Cause 

white people, chiefly of Spanish descent; six mil- 
lion Mestizos and eight million pure Indians. 
What revolutionary possibilities such figures 
show ! Add to them the facts of illiteracy, the dis- 
possession of lands and the selfish examples ivhich 
their leaders, both in the Church and State, have 
given them and the stage is set for Madero's rev- 
olution. To refresh your memory concerning the 
downfall of Diaz and the subsequent rise and fall 
of Madero, the following excerpts are taken from 
the Chicago Tribune: 

June 26, 1910: Porfirio Diaz re-elected president of Mexico. 
Rebellion planned for election day frustrated by proclamation of 
martial law in border towns. 

November, 1910: Insurrection breaks out in northern states; 
several important towns captured by insurgents; Francisco Madero 
proclaims himself '^ provisional president." 

March 7, 1911: President Taft orders 20,000 United States 
troops, one-fourth of the army, to Mexican border and is reported 
to have given Mexico until May 1 to restore peaceful conditions 
or suffer American intervention. 

May 10, 1911 : Insurgents recapture Jaurez in fight costing 
many lives. 

May 25, 1911 : Diaz resigns presidency, and De La Barra is 
made president pro tern, pending new election. 

June 6, 1911 : Anti-Madero plot discovered among element 
ousted with Porfirio Diaz. 

August 2, 1911 : Friends of Emilio Vasquez Gomez, who was 
forced by Madero to resign from the provisional cabinet, declare 
they will start a revolution against Madero. 

October 1, 1911 : Madero chosen president at general election, 
inaugurated November 6. 

January to December, 1912: Fighting between Madero's troops 

27 




— ColTyright. Uiidcrivood and i iidcrzi'ood. 
President Diaz, for half a century dictator of Mexico. 



The Cause 

and various insurgent bands allied to Gomez, Orozco, Zapata, Rajas, 
Campa and others. 

February 1, 1912: Emilio Vasquez Gromez named for provi- 
sional president by anti-Maderistas. 

February, 1912: Army leaders become hostile to Madero ; fight- 
ing in the vicinity of Chihuahua; Orozco declines Madero 's offer 
of governorship of Chihuahua. 

March 14, 1912: President Taft issues proclamation forbid- 
ding shipment of arms into Mexico except for Mexican govern- 
ment. 

April 15, 1912: Number of American citizens killed since revolt 
began estimated at eighty-five. 

October 16, 1912: General Felix Diaz, nephew of deposed pres- 
ident, seizes arsenal and garrison at Vera Cruz. 

October 23, 1912: Madero troops recapture Vera Cruz, Diaz 
taken prisoner, is court-martialed and sentenced to death, but is 
saved from execution by Madero. Diaz taken to Mexico City jail. 

Februairy 9, 1913: Army revolts in Mexico City, releases Diaz 
and Reyes, traps Madero in his palace and captures arsenal under 
the leadership of Diaz. Revolt may force United States to inter- 
vene ;. Wilson to decide future attitude toward Mexico. Troops and 
navy ready. Becords of State Department slioiv vwre than one 
hundred Americans have been 'killed. 

February 12, 1913: United States troops ready for Mexico. 
Taft orders battleships to go. Situation at crisis. All-day iDattle 
in streets of Mexico City. Major-General Wood orders transports 
put in readiness to carry troops to the border. 

February 12, 1913: Six hundred Americans flee capital. One 
American man wounded and two American women killed — Mrs. 
Holmes and Mrs. Griffiths. 

February IS, 1913: Bayonet battle in Mexico City. Wreck 
American Club. 

February 14, 1913: Diaz forces slay hundreds of the Federals. 

February 15, 1913: President Madero refuses to resign presi- 
dency on demand of the Senate. Two Americans killed during all- 

29 



With the National Guard on the Border 

day battle in Mexico City streets. Ambassador Wilson near death 
when rifle ball hits wall near Ms head. 

February 16, 1913: Senate Sub-committee hears of outrages 
on Americans by Mexican rebels. Witnesses describe the murder 
of American citizens and the plunder of their property. Witnesses 
testify that the hostility of Mexicans toward Americans, thousands 
of whom have suffered personal injury and the destruction of their 
property, was caused by the belief that the American government 
constantly sided wdth Madero in his efforts to obtain and keep 
control of the government. All the revolutionary leaders have ex- 
]3ressed themselves with bitterness on this account. Sundreds of 
pages of the testimony that has been given to the Sub-committee 
tell practicaUy the same story, of the robbery, destruction of prop- 
erty, kidnapping for ransom, personal injuries, and utter disregard 
for the lives and property of American dtisens in Mexico. To il- 
lustrate with just one example: A midnight attack upon the 
hacienda of an American ranch in the territory of Tepee was fol- 
lowed by a four days' chase of the ten American occupants, five 
women and five men, half -clad, who escaped in the dark through 
an unguarded door and finally made their way to safety. 

February 17, WIS: Taft continues war activities, but wants 
to give Wilson clear tield. 

February 18, 1913: Francisco I. Madero forced to resign from 
presidency. Huerta in control. Terrible scenes in Mexico City. 
Practical wreck of Capitol by long battle. Scores of bodies burned. 
Citizens prisoners in perforated houses. 

February 19, 1913: The execution of Gustavo Madero, brother 
to the de^josed president. Gustavo Madero was subjected to the 
notorious "fugitive law" by which he was free to run under the 
rifle tire of his guards. He fell dead under their bullets. Gustavo 
Madero was known as the "power behind the throne.'' 

February SO, 1913: Fate of Madero iiucertain. He probably 
owes liis life to Ambassador Wilson. Roving bauds of rebels 
expected to keep up revolt. Huerta will use arms to quell it. Cap- 
ital deaih-toll numbers three thousand. 

February 22, 1913: United States troops rushed to border. In- 

30 



With the National Guard on the Border 

teivention planned. Opposition to Huerta regime forces Taft's 
administration to act. Fate of Madero in balance. 

February 23, 1913: Madero and Suarez assassinated by their 
guards. Eemoval of warfare in Southern Republic predicted when 
news of deaths reaches interior. 

February 24, 1913: Americans held for ransom. G-overnor 
Colquitt rushes Texas militia to Brownsville. Consul Garrett at 
Nuevo Laredo threatened. Taft orders federal troops to Browns- 
ville. 

February £5, 1913: Mexicans in new revolts. Hope for peace 
is slight. Rebel activities in the north have increased and the 
Zapatistas are active in the south. 

March 2, 1913: Mexicans attack American troops. Running 
fight on the border near Douglas, Arizona. 

March 5, 1913: New revolts reported. Ten thousand rebels at 
Saltillo. An American reported slain at Manzanillo. Colonel Car- 
ranza to extort money from Americans and other foreigners to 'pay 
his soldiers. 

March 9, 1913 : Consul Letcher states that the aggregate wealth 
of Mexico is a little under tioo and one-half billions, and that ap- 
proximately one billion of this or tivo-fifths of entire ivealth is 
owned by Americans. 

March 11, 1913: In his first official statement, President Wil- 
son has served notice upon Mexico and other Latin-American Re- 
publics that his administration proposes to support only those gov- 
ernments which are based on law and not upon arbitrary or irregular 
force. 

March 13, 1913: Mexican rebels take border town. One hun- 
dred die, three hundred wounded in town opposite Nogales, Arizona. 
Bullets rain across border and United States trooper is wounded. 
Red Cross volunteers from this side were constantly in attendance 
upon the wounded of both rebel and federal forces. 

April 28, 1913: Mexico land of butchery from Aztec days. 
Natives were blood-thirsty and ci'uel. War victims were sacrificed 
to gods. Records show that seventy-two thousand persons were 

32 



The Cause 

slain in a single place during one day. Held cannibalistic feast 
yearly. (Frank G. Carpenter.) 

May 8, 1013: Mexican revolt spreads apace. United States 
officials fear repetition of bloody scenes in Capitol. Carranza, 
leader of the so-called Constitutionalist Party, makes threats. 

June 3, 1913: Twelve hours' battle between federals and reb- 
els at Matamoras opposite Brownsville. Private Davis of the 
United States cavalry wounded by stray bullet. American con- 
sulate, where J. H. Johnson and his staff remained during the 
fighting, was in the line of the fire. Heavy loss of life among the 
Mexicans. 

July 12, 1913: Mexicans threaten to destroy United States 
Embassy. Newspapers urg^ war against United States. Two Amer- 
icans held as prisoners by Constitutionalists. 

July 22, 1913: Growing gravity of Mexican situation. Mexi- 
cans cheer new Japanese envoy. Americans in peril. 

July 26, 1913: Charles B. Dixon, of San Diego, California, 
Immigration Inspector, was shot and probably fatally wounded by 
Mexican federal soldiers in Jaurez today. Dixon, who had gone 
to Juarez on official business, was arrested and wounded while 
fleeing from his captors fearing summary execution. 

Jiily 29, 1913: Peace in Mexico hangs on ousting of Huerta. 
The policy of the administration centers upon Huerta 's elimina- 
tion. Consensus of opinion is that quick action must be taken to 
restore order. 

August 4, 1913: Five Americans thrown into jail by Huerta 's 
men. Dragged away from work and not allowed to telegraph their 
superiors at El Paso, Texas. One Is a nephew of Admiral Far- 
ragut. 

August 7, 1913: Daughters of Mathew Gourd, an American 
farmer living near Tampico, suffer indignities in the presence of 
their father after he has been tied and robbed by Mexican bandits. 

A^igust 27, 1913: Americans warned to flee Mexico. Cables 
sent to all the consulates. Order issued barring arms to both sides. 

September 6, 1913: Mexican officer crosses the border to kill 
a "Gringo." Is killed himself. 

33 



With the National Guard on the Border 

October 10, 1913: Huerta arrests and imprisons one hundred 
and ten deputies of Mexican Parliament. Troops surround Capitol. 

October SO, 1913: Huerta elected president of Mexico, foes 
give up hope. Americans plan to flee. Wilson's policy a secret. 

This revolution, ending as it did with the assas- 
sination of President Madero and Vice-President 
Sanrez, brought the old Indian murderer, Victori- 
ano Huerta, into power. A more diabolically in- 
genious character could not be conceived. He had 
a degree of ability and training which raised him 
above the level of the proudest pure-blooded Span- 
iard in Mexico and with it all, he had the heart and 
hand of a ruthless savage. Yet Mexico is so lack- 
ing in pride, so weak in spirit and so indifferent to 
its national honor that it resented our President's 
righteous refusal to recognize a twentieth century 
Macbeth as their proper and lawful president. 
Much as I disapprove, with thousands of other 
Americans, our President's failure to clean house 
for our neighboring republic, yet the attitude of 
our Government shows the infinite superiority of 
our civilization over that of Mexico. In other 
words, our Government had to furnish the pride 
and spirit of honor for Mexico by refusing to rec- 
ognize a base murderer as their ruler. 

The essential thing, which any people must have 
in order to Avarrant self-government, pride and 
honor in themselves and their government, is to- 
tally absent from Mexican history. True, they 

34 



, SS 




V 


^K^^^HPl 


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-Coio-fe^y, American Press Association. 



The late ex-President Huerta of Mexico — the cruel, merciless 
murderer of Madero. 



With the National Guard on the Border 

threw off the Spanish yoke, but not that the people 
might enjoy self-government, not that the rights of 
humanity might be conserved, not even that the 
form of their government might be improved, but 
solely to relieve themselves from the trade restric- 
tions of Spain and alloAV the Spaniard in Mexico 
to reap the profits from ten million peons which 
they had previously been forced to share with the 
Spaniard in Spain. The same heartless rule of 
Mexico which Spain had given them continued un- 
der these native Spaniards and the peons were too 
ignorant to know or care. 

The rule of liuerta would have been a disgrace 
to their country but one more blot on their national 
honor means no more to the Mexican aristocrac)^ 
than an additional freckle means to an American 
farmer. Their one desire is freedom to grind more 
money from the peons and it makes no difference 
to them who their ruler is so long as he can main- 
tain order. This thej^ thought Huerta could do 
and they graciously accepted this modern Nero 
and Avere highly indignant that our President 
Avould not recognize him. In fact, they were so 
outraged over this interference with their domes- 
tic affairs that nothing would have pleased them 
better than to have declared war against the 
"gringoes" and chased them into Canada. 

But the program of our President prevailed, 
liuerta was eliminated, but not before his repre- 

36 




General Venustiaiio Carranza, President of Mexico. 



With the National Guard on the Border 

sentatives had insulted the "Stars and Stripes" 
and seventeen of our boys had given their lives 
at Vera Cruz. 

The triumph over Huerta was short-lived. The 
bosom companion of our country during these 
strenuous days had been Colonel Carranza, now 
General and Provisional President, and his chief 
confederate, Villa. No sooner was Huerta elim- 
inated than they took the field against each other. 
Through the permission of our government Car- 
ranza moved his troops through American terri- 
tory and crushed Villa's army. This so enraged 
Villa that the Columbus raid, with a death roll of 
many more Americans, followed his elimination 
from Mexican affairs and led to our expeditionary 
force being sent to Mexico in pursuit of one man. 

Now this expedition, commanded by a Major 
General, drawing upon the full fighting force of 
our great nation, is gradually withdrawing in or- 
der "to protect its lines of coimnunication, " 
"avoid attack by pursuing Villistas," and "for 
diplomatic reasons." 

In a nut shell, this is a review of Mexican his- 
tory and of our abortive efforts to save their coun- 
try from themselves, as well as save our o^^m cit- 
izens from death and our country from disgraceful 
invasion and insult. 



38 



CHAPTER II 
MEXICAN INTERVENTION 

Tj^ROM this running narrative of bloodshed and 
^ disorder, we come to the real problems of the 
Mexican situation, viz., can the Mexican people 
govern themselves, and if not, shall ive intervenef 
It seems that no one can doubt the fact that they 
have failed woefully to maintain a real government 
in the past, nor is there any question that an anal- 
ysis of their population and past history must lead 
us to two conclusions, — first, that the vast major- 
ity of the people are still savages ; second, that the 
white population of Mexico, its ruling class, has 
not and will not give to the country a just and 
equitable government. Moreover, all the revolu- 
tions in the world cannot benefit the situation; a 
revolution in Mexico will have no more influence 
upon its social structure than John Brown's re- 
bellion in Virginia, nor can any person think that 
a government controlled by the peons of Mexico 
would be an improvement upon the most drastic 
tyranny of a Diaz or Huerta. A race of children 
must have a king or his equivalent to rule over 
them ; and until such a race develops the conscious- 
ness of manhood with its sense of justice, respon- 

39 



With the National Guard on the Border 

sibility and self-control, they are happier and bet- 
ter off under the rule of a monarchy or selfish oli- 
garchy. 

The Mexican people face three possibilities: A 
continuation of their rule by the few, who will give 
them the same old Spanish yoke to wear, will im- 
pose upon them, the same unjust taxes for their 
rulers' benefit, will sell their national resources 
to foreigners, and do absolutely nothing to lift the 
peon from his ignorance and poverty, seeking in 
every possible way to keep him in financial, men- 
tal and social bondage to themselves. 

Or, they may have a government by the peons ; in 
other words, a magnified form of carpet-bag rule, 
with ignorant Indians and half-breeds attempting 
to govern a great country under the unscru- 
pulous and selfish leadership of such human blood- 
hounds as Francisco Villa. Under such leader- 
ship, the country's resources mil be drained to the 
last penny, no business development will be pos- 
sible, and after an indefinite period of bloodshed 
and anarchy, some individual with the qualities 
of a Napoleon or a Diaz will come to the front and 
through their desire to have surcease from blood- 
shed and financial ruin they will gladly consent to 
his rule. But before that happens, debts will bo 
heaped upon their nation, industries Avill be de- 
stroyed and the most capable and prosperous of 
their citizens will sink into the mire of poverty 

40 



Mexican Intervention 

and uselessness which happened to the Sonth un- 
der carpet-bag rule, and to Prance after the Rev- 
olution, — with this noticeable difference, that the 
body politic from which the new France and the 
new South have sprung will be altogether lacking 




— Copyright, I'icss I llustiatiy.ij Sci-vu 
Mexican refugees at the border. 



in Mexico. If we could reasonably expect the res- 
urrection of a new Mexico from the ruins of the 
old, if there was a chance that the Mexican peon 
possessed the liberty-loving soul and hard common 
sense of the English race, which has forged its 
great Empire and the United States through re- 

41 



With the National Guard on the Border 

bellion against kings, if we thought it possible for 
them to compose the Great Charter of English lib- 
erties or the Constitution of the United States, if 
they had the sterling qualities of the French peas- 
ant, then Ave would say to them : ' ' Gfod speed you ! 
Shed all the blood you want to shed ! Waste your 
resources ! Do anything you like ! For these 
things are but the price which every great nation 
lias paid for its conception and rebirth." But we 
would be closing our eyes to the facts and commit- 
ting a sin against the Avorld to suppose that the 
Mexican Indian, who comprises more than half the 
population of Mexico, is prepared to create a gov- 
ernment that would be stable. Far better to trust 
the negro of the South to make a stable govern- 
ment than to connnit that task to the Indians or 
half-breeds of Mexico. The Southern negro is a 
Prince in the House of Judah compared with the 
Mexican peon. 

The only other possibility is intervention, either 
European or American. The former we will not 
brook, the latter must come sooner or later. Had 
the Capitol of the United States been situated at 
El Paso, Texas, the problem Avould long since have 
been settled. As it is, the people along the Atlan- 
tic seaboard think that Wisdom dies with them. 
One little murmur from old England carries more 
meaning to their hearts than all the real problems 
that confront their countr^anen in California or 

42 



Mexican Intervention 

along the Mexican border. Personally I wish the 
Capitol of our country was located in St. Louis, 
Missouri, for the relative importance of our na- 
tional problems would then come nearer receiving 
their just consideration. 

But returning to our problem, it is in line mth 
our big brother attitude toward the weaker na- 
tions of this hemisphere for us to intervene in 
Mexico. We have repeatedly landed our marines 
in the Island Republics and in Central America to 
bring order out of chaos, and for very much less 
cause than we now have to intervene in Mexico. 

In addition, who can doubt the beneficial influ- 
ences to Mexico if this intervention took perma- 
nent form in the acquisition of that country, first 
as a territory and later as States of our great 
Union. It would secure to them the advantages 
of health, education and self-government. It 
would open to all classes new and profitable bus- 
iness ventures, giving remunerative labor to the 
poor and insuring the rich against losing every- 
thing to the latest bandit general who last week 
was an unheard-of peasant and next week will ac- 
claim himself provisional president of Mexico. 
Under the direction of the sanitary experts of the 
United States Army, Mexico would receive its first 
national bath, and its health conditions be vastly 
improA^^ed. If, as in the Philippine Islands, our 
government established schools in Mexico, then for 

43 




— Col\yi'u/lit , .hucricaii Press Association. 

General Francisco Villa, who is "wanted" by the United States 
for his ruthless crime at Columbus, New Mexico. 



Mexican Intervention 

the first time in its history the children of that 
land would have an opportunity to become useful 
and enlightened citizens. Its government thus far 
has been a Republic in name only, but, under the 
tuition of our federal officers, it would become such 
in fact just as fast as their capacity for self-gov- 
ernment was made manifest. 

Finall}^, Mexico would be a real asset to our 
country instead of a thorn in the flesh as it is at 
present. It would offer us new fields of effort and 
opportunity, with a commensurate blessing to Mex- 
ico. Under present conditions, citizens of the 
United States who live in that country and invest 
their money there, have no assurance from this 
government that anything will be protected. So 
far as the protection of our flag is concerned, there 
is none in Mexico. When our government wants 
to ijrotect American citizens, it sends this mes- 
sage to its consuls: "Tell every American to run 
for his life!" Then, when some poor devils who 
have their all in Mexico and do not want to for- 
sake it and be compelled to start life over, decide 
that they will stick by the "stuff" and, sticking, 
get killed, our peace-loving contingency of elect 
saints and predestined cowards do not blush with 
shame for the flag that has become no longer a 
cloak of protection but a target for the infamous. 
So true has this become that only the other day 
some one decided to use the Stars and Stripes as a 

45 



With the National Guard' on the Border 

towel and proceeded to wipe his hands upon our 
national flag. Then when a good fellow knocked 
him down, the Assistant-Secretary of Agriculture 
or the Treasury wrote him a personal letter of 
appreciation. But when our poor citizens in Mex- 
ico are killed, these peace-loving Americans, whose 
liberties and freedom were bought by the blood of 
our fathers, have the effrontery to look us in the 
eyes and say : ' ' The old fools deserved to be killed, 
didn't the President tell them to get out of Mex- 
ico?" Through intervention all this would be 
changed, and Mexico would become a field of op- 
portunity and safety to those who desire to make 
their homes in that land. 

Moreover, we need Mexico as a protection to our 
canal. The Gulf of California Avill always remain 
a suspicious and conspicuously useful naval base 
for our enemies in time of war until it is in the 
possession of the United States. The poor crip- 
IDled Japanese cruiser with its attending fleet of 
rescuing war vessels that stayed such an unnec- 
essarily long time in this gulf when our alien land 
laws were before the California Legislature, is com- 
paratively a memor}^ of yesterday. Moreover, it 
is a matter of no mean significance that many 
thoughtful Americans have no doubt that the Jap- 
anese have already mined the canal and that it 
would be closed to our battleships and the com- 
merce of the world within twenty-four hours after 

46 



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With the National Guard on the Border 

a declaration of war between Japan and the United 
States. 

The possession of Mexico wonld, of conrse, cost 
something in monej^ and bloodshed, bnt hasn't it 
cost both of these things in the past and isn't it 
costing the same now, and what have we to show 
for it? Absolntely nothing, and with the further 
prospect that as long as we do not intervene, we 
shall be forced to continue to pa}" an exorbitant 
price for onr simple-mindedness. Moreover, did 
not the founding and development of Virginia and 
New England cost something? Re-read the his- 
tory of our colonies if you doubt it. Was not the 
settling of the Mississippi Valley, the great North 
and SoutliAvest accompanied with hardship and 
death and the forcible exit or subjugation of sav- 
age peoples ? What is the difference between mak- 
ing Mexico a new and habital)le land in the twen- 
tieth century, and sending red-blooded, noble cit- 
izens by the million into a land that is over half- 
savage, and taking Arizona, New Mexico and Cali- 
fornia fifty years earlier and transforming them 
by the genius of our institutions from Spanish 
cockpits into three of as noble and attractive states 
as there are in the Union? 

In conclusion, the Avhole problem of intervention 
may be summarized hy a homely illustration. Sup- 
pose you had a neighbor wlio maintained a con- 
stant nuisance, to your great annoyance and dan- 

48 



With the National Guard on the Border 

ger; suppose that this nuisance destro3^ed or im- 
paired the value of your lot and dwelling house ; 
suppose that, in addition, it threatened the health 
and safety of your wife and children; suppose, 
that in all friendliness, you had sent your servant 
over and had urged upon him the removal or 
abatement of this nuisance and he had rebuffed 
the servant and heaped insults upon ^''our name ; 
suppose then that you had sent your son to pre- 
sent your protest and he had been mistreated or 
killed, and that the same night your neighbor 
should break into your house, steal what he de- 
sired, kill another of your children, set fire to 3^our 
dwelling and, crossing over to his own diseased, 
disorderly premises, invite you to a conference to 
discuss your future relations with each other, — 
what would you do I Would you first consider 
what influence your method of redress might 
have on your business relations with his respect- 
able kin, would you invite his brothers and sisters 
and cousins to arbitrate the matter for you? 
AYould you, on failing here, go into a series of 
conferences with your neighbor, inviting him in 
the meantime to send his wife and other defense- 
less members of his family to live in another 
house of yours where they might be free from 
the dangers of the nuisance within their o^m 
liomef If that is the way you would meet such 
a problem, then you surpass Jesus in your gen- 

50 



Mexican Intervention 

erosity and forgiveness, for nncler far less try- 
ing circumstances he pictures the king gathering 
his armies and "utterl}^ destroying" those base 
men. Our government has far exceeded the sev- 
enty times seven rule and the cheek-turning phil- 
osophy of Jesus. So much so that we will have to 
establish a new religion based upon the formula 
"There is such a thing as being too proud to 
fight," which interpreted in Lincoln's language 
would mean "I hold that when God gives a man a 
scary pair of legs, he ought not to be punished 
for usins- them." 



51 



CHAPTER III 

THE JAPANESE PROBLEM 

/^UR friends, the missionaries, tell us that there 
^-^ will never be a war with Japan, that they 
have the kindliest feeling toward the United 
States; and if the Jingo xDress would only stop its 
agitation, we would never be precipitated into a 
struggle. Now I am not an ordinary gambler, hav- 
ing had strong predilections against that gentle 
art ever since in bo^^hood being enticed into a 
game of "heads I win and tails joii lose," but for 
all that, I will wager (for that's a nicer word) 
against any of my brother ministers engaged in 
missionary work in Japan, the best Bible published 
by the American Bible Society, that within twenty- 
five years the United States of America and Japan 
will clinch in one of the bitterest wars in History. 
In saying this, I may be a Jingo, but let us con- 
sider the question without prejudice if possible. 

Since Admiral Perry opened Japan to Western 
Civilization, she has pushed forward into world 
affairs at a great pace. She has painted herself 
all over with the surface things of enlightenment. 
She has adopted Western machinery, Western ed- 
ucation and AVestern military science. She has 

52 



The Japanese Problem 

waged three great wars in a period of twenty-five 
years. She has humiliated the old Chinese Em- 
pire, whipped Russia, unlawfully and without 
cause absorbed Korea, and under the blanket of 
European misfortune put an iron heel upon the 
hopeful life of the New Chinese Republic. In ad- 
dition she has plunged, without other cause than 
her utter selfishness, into the European war, thus 
securing possession of the German interests in 
China. 

What must one infer from these facts! Japan 
has received only the surface things of the West. 
Her spirit is as uncivilized as that of the most 
backward peoples of Manchuria plus the addi- 
tional unhappy feature of possessing western arms 
and the knowledge of how to use them. Moreover, 
the arrogant pride which has been developed 
through her successful struggles with China and 
Russia has made her as sensitive to insult as were 
the old gunmen of the West. In contrast to the 
everlasting forbearance of the United States she 
has none. 

On the other hand, we have several Western 
states which consider their future doubtful if they 
do not limit the encroachment of the Japanese 
coolie class, and protect the American laborer and 
farmer against the lower economic standards of 
the Orient. These states, proceeding within their 
constitutional rights, either have made or will 




-Cflf>yright, Underwood and Underwood. 



A recent ])liotogTaiih of Majcr-Gcneral Frederick Funston, wIiokc 
remarkable heroism during the Spanish-Ainerican War and whose 
capture of Aguinaldo, the Philippine rebel, is still remendtered liy 
those whose memory goes back to the days of '98. 



The Japanese Problem 

make laws protecting their citizens against the 
Japanese and other alien Orientals. A glimpse 
of the possibilities existing in such laws can best 
be given by turning once more to the files of a re- 
liable newspaper, — one that has never, to my 
knowledge, been adjudged a Jingo press. The 
Chicago Tribune gives the following account of the 
delicate situation which arose between the govern- 
ments of Japan and the United States during the 
passage of Alien Land Laws in the California Leg- 
islature in 1913 : 

April 17, 1913: Japanese mob cheers resort to arms. United 
States faces difificulty. Other states have alien land laws similar to 
those proposed in California. 

April 18, 1913: Alien land bill inflames Japan. Political 
leaders hint at retaliation. Talk of war growing. Mass meeting 
of 20,000 Japanese citizens cheeis orators. 

April 19, 1913: Bryan's letter may beat bills aimed at Jap- 
anese. 

April 21, 1913: Governor Johnson defends right to enact alien 
land laws. He cites the fact that the nation and other states have 
similar acts. Plans more drastic bills. Legislators admit effort 
to bar Japanese is real cause for movement. President Wilson to 
continue his efforts. 

April 22, 1913: Insist on power of Cr.lifornians to bar out 
aJicns. President r.sliis Governor to avoid chance of violating 
treaties. No changes in probable bill. 

April 23, 1913: President Wilson sends Secretary of State 
Bryan to Sacramento, California, to assist Governor Johnson in 
framing a bill that will not violate treaties. 

April 24, 1913: Baron Nobuaki Makino, the Japanese Foreign 
Minister, in addressing the Congress of the Japanese Chamber 
of Commerce in Tokio called to discuss the California land owner- 

55 



With the National Guard on the Border 

ship legislation, told his hearers that the negotiations between 
Japan and the United States had reached ' ' a most delicate point. ' ' 

April 28, 1913: Secretary Bryan wires to Wilson for further 
instructions in solving great problem. Governor Johnson and leg- 
islators insist on state's right to enact land laws. 

April 29, 1913: More rigid bill drafted. Bryan informs Gov- 
ernor and legislators that it is not satisfactory to Wilson. Secre- 
tary will stay on watch. 

April 30, 1913: President Wilson to accept California law, 
cannot help Japanese. Other issues involved. Alaska plans to 
prevent Orientals from fishing in adjacent waters. 

May 3, 1913: Bryan says latest land bill does not meet Presi- 
dent Wilson's approval. Makes last plea to Calif ornians. 

May 6, 1913: Alien land bill creates crisis. Wilson seeks way 
out of tangle into which California plunged the United States. 
Japan to retaliate (?). Jingoes may force issue. 

May 11, 1913 : Ask Governor Johnson to refuse to sign alien 
land bill. Wilson and Bryan make final plea, but with little hope, 
to the California Executive. Delay sought by Governor would 
bo used in effort to diplomatically settle trouble. In Mr. Bryan's 
telegram to Governor Johnson he said : ' ' His excellency. Baron 
Chinda, has, on behalf of his government, presented an earnest 
protest against the measure. ' ' 

May 12, 1913 : Japan makes the issue one affecting her national 
pride and honor. Danger seen in new angle of protest. United 
States must use caution. 

May 14, 1913: Governor Johnson to sign alien land bill. He 
cites law of the nation. Denies violation of treaty. 

May 15, 1913: Japanese dispute causes activity of army and 
navy. Coast artillery to go to Hawaii, and North Atlantic Fleet 
ordered in readiness. Chinda visits White House. Precautionary 
steps taken after ambassador leaves. Possibilities are dangerous. 
"// the battleship fleet were in the Pacific Ocean, it is not be- 
lieved there would be any trouble with Japan over the California 
legislation. It was repeatedly stated in administrative circles to- 
day that a great mistake loas made by this government in with- 

56 



The Japanese Problem 

drawing the fleet fronn the Pacific, It will be recalled that the 
fleet was sent to that ocean hy President Boosevelt, ostensibly on 
a friendly mission as a result of the strained relations ivith Japan, 
growing out of the San Francisco school question." 

May 16, 1913: Tokio, Japan. — The announcement that Gov- 
ernor Johnson will sign the alien land ownership bill has again 
aroused the radicals. Several parliamentarians have called a mass 
meeting for tomorrow. 

May 16, 1913: President Wilson prepares alien bill reply to 
appease Japan. Answer to protest, however, will show that the 
United States has made the cause of California its own. Situa- 
tion in nature of crisis. 

May 19, 1913: London. — "Japanese dispute grave question af- 
fecting the world," says Sir Valentine Chirot, foreign editor of 
the London Times. " It is a world question essentially. The fears 
of the inhabitants of the Pacific Slope are exaggerated and pre- 
mature, but they are not entirely groundless. The time has come 
Vi'hen Japan is disposed to challenge the very essence of the atti- 
tude of Western nations toward Asiatics. It asks admission to the 
comity of nations on equal terms. Japan 's challenge comes at a 
moment that is fraught with peculiar danger. Its elder statesmen 
have nearly all passed away and few are left to check the impulses 
of popular passion. Japanese democracy is knocking at the doors 
of the council chambers, and we fear it "is a democracy ivhich is 
headstrong, excitable and inexperienced. We are thus on both sides 
confronted by a situation of very special difficulty. ' ' 

May 19, 1913: California's law upheld by Bryan in reply to 
Japan. Secretary sends note to Chiuda as soon as Johnson signs 
bilL The President realizes that the situation is grave. 

May 21, 1913: Japanese view lessens tension. Bryan's note 
in regard to land bill accepted in friendly spirit. 

June 4, 1913: Japan demands federal action to nullify land 
laws... Latest note insists that the United States enter fight against 
California laws. 

June 5, 1913: Japan appeals direct to President Wilson. Set- 
tlement no nearer. 

57 




— Photo by Harris &■ Eii'iiii/. 
Majov-Gciioral Jolm J. PcM'sliiiio-. 



The Japanese Prohlem 

With this, the Japanese question dropped out of 
the front page of our newspapers, and sank tem- 
porarily from our sight. But the question re- 
mained as vital as ever and only recently, when 
our country seemed plunging into a war with 
Germany, Secretary Lansing and President Wil- 
son brought pressure to bear upon two other 
western states which were about to enact similar 
laws. The President's appeal 'was based upon 
the urgency of the submarine question and re- 
quested these states "not to linvolve us in a 
Japanese controversy at this time." The press 
informed us that the Japanese government had 
gone on record to the effect that they feared the 
enactment of the proposed laws would so "in- 
flame" the Japanese people as to force the gov- 
ernment of Japan to have recourse to arms. 

That the western states will all enact similar 
laws to those passed by California is too evident 
to require argument. That sooner or later the 
"headstrong, excitable and inexperienced democ- 
racy" of Japan ^\^\\ force us into war is just as 
certain. Only an embarrassed Japanese treasury 
and a consciousness on the part of their more sa- 
gacious leaders that they were unprepared to cope 
with the United States prevented war in 1913. 
Some day they will feel equal to the task and then 
the biggest navy and the j^est marksmen will have 
the victory. 

59 



With the National Guard on the Border 

Moreover, this final warning must be given. If 
we allow Japan to secure such a control of Chinese 
affairs as to commandeer her natural resources 
of land, minerals and men, God help us. China 
and Ja]3an, organized for war as Germany was, 
will be more than a match for the resources of 
men and money which we possess. The Monroe 
Doctrine with regard to America alone must be 
thrown to the winds. The safety of our country 
and of the white race depends upon our protecting 
China against the scheming policies of Japan. 
China as a free nation means friendship with 
America, China under the control of Japan means 
that some day there will be a world convulsion that 
will make the present European war look like a 
game of penny ante to the man who plays poker 
with the sky as the limit; the issue will not be a 
question of European backyards that will be in- 
volved, but it will be a cpiestion of which race 
shall inhabit the globe. 



60 



CHAPTER IV 

AN ADEQUATE MILITARY AND NAVAL 
PROGRAM 

A BOUT three years ago we were developing a 
^^^ peace sentiment so rapidly that any one who 
spoke to the contrary on the subject of military 
preparedness was considered a fanatic. The peace 
movement had gained such a momentum that mili- 
tary schools were hard pressed to maintain their 
constituency if they continued to hold to their mil- 
itary features. The president of one of the best 
military schools in the United States very frankly 
confessed that they were seriously considering the 
advisability of discontinuing the military phases of 
their school work. "Not only our school but a 
number of the best military academies throughout 
the country, were in a similar predicament. The 
peace propaganda had created such a sentiment 
against military training that we were all facing 
financial difficulties if we did not abandon every- 
thing pertaining to militarism. But now, ' ' he con- 
tinued, "the European war and our Mexican prob- 
lem have reawakened a military consciousness and 
we have more applications for admission to our 
school than we can provide for." 

61 



An Adequate Military and Naval Program 

The American people have gone through the 
same evolutionary cycle that the English people 
passed through in the latter years of Lord Roberts. 
During the years just prior to the great war, he 
warned Great Britain that they were asleep to 
their danger, that a great world war was inevita- 
ble. What did they think of him during this time? 
They said: "Old 'Bobs' is going crazy, he is in his 
dotage, there is no real danger. On with com- 
merce, war is a thing of the past. ' ' But Lord Rob- 
erts was right and he had performed the duty of 
the prophetic watchman, so that in the words of the 
Scripture he was "innocent of their blood." For- 
tunatel57^^. Lord Roberts lived to see the day when 
his judgment was vindicated and the people no 
longer regarded him as an old crank gone mad 
with a senile dream. 

Today America has partially awakened. For 
years it closed its e3^es and ears to the facts which 
Hobson and other prophets, known as "military 
or naval faddists," tried to point out. But the ag- 
ony of Europe has awakened us to the danger of 
trusting scraps of paper, treaties of peace, coun- 
cils of arbitration, and the like. When men see 
red, there is no room for the arbitrator, and God 
spare the innocent man or the neutral nation that 
stands between the combatants. Poor Belgium 
bleeding beneath the iron heel of Germany, poor 
Greece l^leeding beneath the equall}?" cruel heel of 

63 



With the National Guard on the Border 

the Allies have given the American people cause 
for thought. 

Of course, it isn't right! Of course, it should be 
otliervdse ! But it is nevertheless a fact that the 
end of wars is not 3^et at hand. As long as there 
are different races, different nations, different 
tongues, different ideals, conflicting desires, com- 
mercial struggle for supremacy, envy, jealousy 
and fear, there will be war, and the nation is blind, 
deaf and an applicant for suicide that closes its 
eyes to the facts of life, and will not look for the 
hidden causes of strife. 

Now a well kno^^m principle of crime is this, that 
burglars usually enter those houses in which the 
doors and windows are left unlocked. The same 
is true of nations. Would Germam^ have violated 
the neutralit}' of Belgium had the frontiers of that 
country been as strongly fortified as those of 
France? Would England and France have dared 
to treat a nation with strong powers of resistance 
as they have treated Greece I 

At last our American people have come to real- 
ize the necessit^^ of an adequate military program. 
The problem is. What form of preparedness will 
])e adequate and at the same time most thoroughly 
in keeping with the genius of our people! Shall 
it be a great standing army; a reasonably large 
standing army and a thoroughly reliable National 

64 




\ 



With the National Guard on the Border 

Guard or universal training f It must be one of 
these, — which shall it be? 

In the chapters which are to follow I think that 
it will appear with reasonable certainty that the 
National Guard is not to be relied upon as a sec- 
ond line of defense. Obviously, the experiences of 
the past summer were a great disappointment to 
those who have devoted their lives to the Guard. 
To anticipate our later treatment of this subject, 
the limitations of the Guard are married men, 
business entanglements, politics, labor unions and 
the amateur's inefficiency in the performance of 
highly complex and scientific duties, for war is to 
all the other affairs of life what Metaphysics is to 
the sciences, — it is the science of sciences. 

In other Avords, Ave must eliminate the Guard 
from our problem of an adequate military pro- 
gram. This does not mean that the Guard is of 
no military A^alue, but that it is inadequate or in- 
sufficient. All things considered, no arm of the 
federal service is worth more to the government 
than is the National Guard. "Inadequate" is all 
that anyone can say against the Guard. But since 
we are thinking in terms of adequacy, we couldn't 
say anything more drastic so far as it affects the 
problem of self-defense. This leaves us to choose 
betAveen a great standing army and universal 
training. 

Which, then, shall Ave have? The eA^ents of the 

66 



An Adeqiiate Military and Naval Program 

past few years make an army of half a million men 
seem a trifling thing. Our immense coast line, 
East and West, with the numerous cities on and 
adjacent thereto involve such a subdividing of half 
a million men as to render every point vulnerable 
if attacked by a first-class power or a combination 
of lesser foes. On the other hand, a regular army 
of a million men, which would approximate our 
needs, involves a new social order, having the pos- 
sibilities of a military caste that is rather distaste- 
ful to a freedom loving, democratic country. In 
addition, the permanent loss of a million men from 
the usual channels of life, passing into the atmos- 
phere of the barracks, with its social and indus- 
trial reflex upon our civilization has, to say the 
least, very unattractive features. 

But none of these arguments stand against uni- 
versal training. Under such a system we would 
always have in training two million young men 
between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one. This 
universal training need not mean permanent army 
service for three years. We are not bound to fol- 
low any European precedents. The methods used 
may be adapted to meet the genius of our institu- 
tions. Any one of a dozen plans would be suitably 
adequate. 

As an excellent illustration of the agreement by 
the press and military experts as to the insuffi- 
ciency of the Guard, and the difference in their 

67 




< 



o 



s ^ 



An Adequate Military and Naval Program 

judgment as to the advisability of universal train- 
ing, I quote from an editorial in the Saturday 
Evening Post, December 16, 1916: 

"Experience at the Mexican Border shows 
plainly enough that the National Guard is very ill 
suited to regular army work. A hundred thousand 
young civilians, mainl}'^ dependent for livelihood 
and the support of their families upon modest 
salaries or wages, were abruptly taken from their 
customary paths and sent upon strenuous public 
business, for which, on the Avhole, the}^ were not 
well trained or Avell equipped. 

"It is a lasting disgrace to the nation that the 
guardsmen had scarcely answered the President's 
summons before agencies in various cities were 
passing the hat for pennies to save their families 
from want. Many emplo^^'ers promised to keep the 
guardsmen's places open for them and to continue 
their pay. We know of one by no means pluto- 
cratic concern that was put to a charge of several 
hundred dollars a month in paying salaries and 
wages of absent guardsmen. 

"Why should this comparatively small business 
bear that grossly disproportionate tax for national 
defense? Reports show that, as regiments re- 
turned from the Border, many guardsmen found 
themselves out of jobs and with empt}^ pockets. 

"Why should these patriotic guardsmen bear 
that grossly disproportionate burden? 

69 



With the National Guard on the Border 

"The National Guard is constitutionally ill suit- 
ed to regular army work. That part of the new 
Army Bill which pretends to adapt it to such work, 
by making it more extensively subject to Federal 
control and contributing fifty million dollars a 
year, or more, of Federal money to its support, is 
only a transparent and pork-barrel sham. It ought 
to be repealed. 

"Conscription, for which our amateur militaristn 
are so ardent — is that the remedy? 

"By no means. Evolving an army of ten mil- 
lion, when every tangible probability can be met 
with five per cent of that number, would be more 
absurd than relying upon the National Guard. Our 
national situation no more calls for universal mili- 
tary service on the Continental plan than the situa- 
tion of Chicago calls for universal police service. 

"Like Chicago, we should have a police force 
adequate to probable needs ; and we should get it in 
the same Avay — that is, by increasing a regular 
army of fairly paid professional soldiers." 

Confessing that I am but an "amateur militar- 
ist" and believing that the editor of the Saturday 
Evening Post is in that respect uiy twin brother, 
I will now give the opinion of Major-General Leon- 
ard Wood, Commander of the Department of the 
East, as expressed to the Business Men's League 
of St. Louis when discussing the measures this 
country will need to take "if it is ever going to 

70 



With the National Guard on the Border 

survive the shock of a great war with a first-class 
Power. ' ' 

The foUomng is taken from the St. Lonis Post- 
Dispatch, December 13, 1916: 

' ' He declared that miiversal military service was 
a necessity and that the operation of the Hay bill, 
for Federalizing the militia, had 'left much to be 
desired.' 

'' 'Manhood suffrage means manhood obligation 
for service,' General Wood declared. 

"We must come, and come at once, to a system 
of universal military service. We must adopt a 
system which will insure to each 3^outh who is 
physically fit, at least six months of intense train- 
ing — training as intensive as that we give at Platts- 
burg. Six months of such training will equal in 
actual hours from one and a half to tAvo 3^ears of 
average training in the regular service. One 
month of it gives more hours of actual work than 
the average militia man gets in an ordinary enlist- 
ment. This training can be given under the general 
conditions enforced in Australia and it can be given 
without in any way interfering with the educational 
development of the youth and to great advantage 
to him, morally and pli3^sically, as well as from the 
standpoint of the future citizen. 

"The criticism of the volunteers and militia is 
not made in an unkindly spiiit, but quite the re- 

72 



An Adequate Military and Naval Program 

verse. No one appreciates more than I the services 
these men have rendered, but this must not blind 
us to the fact that military organizations of this 
type will not meet the demands of modern war and 
to maintain them we must prepare our people for 
defeat. We must give our youngsters a sporting 
chance. They are entitled to it. We do not want 
to send them into campaign willing, but unavailing, 
useless sacrifices. Let us meet the issue squarely 
and see to it that if we are to meet a force with a 
force, our men shall go into the struggle well 
trained, well armed, and well fed. 

''The men who have gone to Plattsburg are the 
pioneers in a movement for national service. For 
five years ive have been preaching national service, 
preaching it in a ivilderness, tvith only slight re- 
sponse, until ivithin the last two years. Now it has 
become a matter of common discussion and the 
trend of sentiment is strongly towards it. Its sim- 
plicity, its fairness, its absolute democracy, ap- 
peal to all who have any idea of rendering service 
to their country in time of trouble — in time of war. 
Universal service does not appeal to the shirk and 
the coward. 

''He prefers to continue a system under which 
we can volunteer to let his more patriotic and more 
loyal brother do service for him. The establish- 
ment of universal service must be accompanied by 
legislation which will make its avoidance impos- 



With the National Guard on the Border 

sible for all who are physically and mentally fit. 
There mnst be no more of that most debasing of 
all practices — the purchase of substitutes. No 
more of that evil practice — the giving of bounties. 
Practices, both of Avhich have done nmch to de- 
bauch the spirit of patriotism and cheapen the idea 
of national service. 

''We want conditions under which the rich and 
the poor, Jew and Gentile, will stand shoulder to 
shoulder, in the defense of the country, and no 
man, be he physically fit, shall be able to escape 
during the period of his obligation. It does 
not mean that he should serve in the fighting line. 
It does mean that each man will serve where he is 
best fitted and best trained to serve. 

"AYomen must give this movement their sup- 
port. The}^ owe it to their sons." 

Every officer Avitli whom I have talked, whether 
in the Army or the National Guard, has expressed 
the same opinion as General AYood. The plan 
seems to have the f olloAving advantages : 

It will protect our country against any foe. We 
need not fear any enemy whether European 
or Asiatic. We need not take insults from Mex- 
ico, nor beg our western states not to enact any 
legitimate laws, nor write notes to Germany until 
the supply of white paper makes its price pro- 
hibitive. 

74 



With the National Guard on the Border 

The youth of our country will secure the finest 
physical training that can be provided. From the 
slum with its Aveak underfed bodies to the palace 
Avith its equally undeveloped offspring the boys of 
the United States Avill come forth from povert}^ 
and luxury to live next to nature for a while. Only 
God knows how many years of life were added to 
the one hundred thousand Guardsmen who lived in 
the open last summer; r conservative estimate 
would be two hundred thousand years, or two 
years for each man. I remember one father who 
brayed like an ass and wept like a child because 
his son Avas "not strong and threatened Avith con- 
sumption and noAv they are taking him to the Bor- 
der, they Avill kill my son, etc.,-' and I remember 
the grin that same son gave me in Texas two 
months later. UniA''ersal serAdce means health and 
strength to the boys of America. 

Moreover, it means discipline and increased ef- 
ficiency. The vast majority of boys at eighteen 
years of age have little respect for their parents, 
none for the laAvs of man, and still less for God. 
A little military discipline Avould supplj^ that re- 
spect for authority and laAV that is so lacking in 
American homes. Moreover, there is no question 
that it Avould increase the efficienc}^ and thorough- 
ness of the boys Avhen they return to ciAdlian life. 

Finally, it Avill make our country more demo- 
cratic. It Avill bring the rich and the ]30or, the ed- 

76 



An Adequate Military and Naval Program 

ucated and the uneducated into sympathetic rela- 
tionship. It will teach the petted boy the rights 
of others. It will teach the dirty boy that he must 
be cleanly in his habits. It will result in a social- 
izing of our too-overly developed individualism, 
while at the same time dramng out qualities of 
strength and self-reliance in the boy who is timid 
and backward. Thus universal militarj^ training 
would result not only in furnishing our country 
with an army adequate to meet any crisis, but in 
addition it would develop the youth of our coun- 
try as nothing else could do. 

The present situation with reference to Germany 
should make us face some facts which involve not 
only the immediate development of an adequate 
army but the building of a navy that shall be sec- 
ond to none upon the seas. There are two systems 
of laAv which the world recognizes. International 
Law and the LaAv of Self-Preservation. The for- 
mer controls the conduct of nations with reference 
to minor matters in times of peace, the latter con- 
trols the conduct of the world in times of war. We 
may rave all we like about the sanctity of Inter- 
national Law, but it is secondary to the biological 
instinct which will cause us to lie, steal and kill be- 
fore Ave Avill consent to die. This is not only true 
of savage races and uncivilized peoples; it is 
equally true of the most enlightened races and na- 
tions on the face of the globe. To justify this 

77 



With the National Guard on the Border 

rather harsh statement, let me quote from Will 
Irwin who gives this as the opinion of "a man in 
official position who knows better perhaps than 
any other American, the larger situation in Eu- 
rope. ' '- — ' ' The first year after this Avar may be our 
period of greatest national clanger.' The Euro- 
pean nations will emerge into peace almost bank- 
rupt, loaded down with taxes, overrun with men 
displaced in mind for any abnormal occupation, 
ready for any national venture that will help them 
to recoup. Also they will have veteran armies 
fully equipped. There is Mexico. It holds heavy 
investments at present unproductive. If we don't 
enter this war in some fashion no sentiment aa^II 
keep any European nation from enforcing what it 
believes to be its rights in Mexico, or demanding 
that we enforce them. * * * ^^e shall need an 
army at the close of this Avar much more than Ave 
need one noAV. " 

As a rational joeople, not 3^et embroiled in the 
maelstrom of Inunan hate, let us consider the 
European controA^ers}^ A\ith reference to our pre- 
paredness program. England says that Germany 
has violated her treaty Avith Belgium and unlaAv- 
fully invaded that country ; that Germany lias un- 
laAvfully, barbarously and Avith malice afore- 
thought nmrdered Avomen and children on the high 
seas; and that the present unhappy condition of 
Europe is due to Prussian Militarism. Germany 

78 



With the National Guard on the Border 

frankly admits that she has abrogated treaties, 
modified existing International Law and killed 
women and children, and her excuse for all of this 
is. Military Necessity. 

As Americans ive are unwilling to accept this 
excuse. Our rights must he respected even hy bel- 
ligerents. But ivhat can ive do about it? If we 
haven't the military or naval strength to make the 
nations of the earth think twice before violating 
our rights, we can talk or write notes until we are 
black in the face and it will do no good. In proof 
of this consider the case of England. There is a 
perfectly good nation that is giving her life for 
International Law and the protection of poor Bel- 
gium. Yet we can't help having the suspicion that 
if the English Channel were a thousand miles Avide 
Great Britain's conscience would not have been so 
acute. Neither can we forget the fact that England 
has been the greatest land-grabber in the history 
of the world and that in emergencies she has never 
failed to modify International Law for the pro- 
tection of her own interests. In 1812 she im- 
pressed our seamen and destroyed our gromng 
merchant marine by her Acts in Council. Today 
she opens our mail, blacklists some of our mer- 
chants, and makes others give bond that they will 
not trade with any of her enemies. When our gov- 
eriHoaent protests against these and other modifi- 
eatiofts of International Law the only answer it 

80 



An Adequate Military and Naval Program 

gets is, "The exigencies of war and the trimnph 
of the principles for which we are fighting require 
that we should do these things, ' ' or in other words 
'^Military Necessity." . So we see how in times of 
war not one nation alone but each and every one 
of them finds an excuse for doing something which 
is actually or constructively a violation of the 
rights of others. 

England's boast is that she will break the power 
of German Militarism, and yet she sleeps quietly 
because her navy is the mistress of the seas. Her 
anger with Germany over the high degree of per- 
fection to which she had brought her Arm^^ would 
seem less hypocritical did England not also boast of 
how quickly her battle fleets had responded to the 
call of Lord Churchill to prepare for action, when 
his warning spat its wireless way around the globe. 
I have no excuse to offer for Germany's violation 
of International Law, but the best protection that 
England or any other country can give to these 
broken laws is strict obedience themselves. More- 
over, when any nation violates that law to another 
nation's damage there is but one thing to do and 
that is to say, "Stop or we fight!" / admire En- 
gland for alivays hacking her ivord ivitli her ivhole 
fighting force, and if ive are to have the respect 
of other nations ive must do the same thing. 
AVhen Germany first violated our rights on the sea 
Ave should have written one note and only one and 

81 




— Copyright, American Press Association. 

Removing a sailor who was wounded at Vera Cruz I'roin the 
Hospital Ship "Solace" to the Navy Yard Hospital. 



An Adequate Military and Naval Program 

that note should have said, "Apologize, make 
reparation instantly, or ive fight!" The same 
thing is equally true of England; and if we had 
been firm with her we should not only have had her 
respect but she would not have dared to refuse our 
just demands that she abide by the Law of Nations, 

We have written so many notes and shown so lit- 
tle downright, red-blooded manhood that our State 
Department might well adopt as its cable-code 
"R.S.V.P." Until the nations that love peace are 
stronger than those that love war we can not hope 
that International Law will be held sacred; just 
as every statute in our country would be only "a 
scrap of paper" unless there was the power be- 
hind the legislators to enforce their laws. Amer- 
ica's good- will for everybod}^, her friendliness, her 
devotion to International Law, and her desire to 
protect the weaker nations of the earth demand 
of us that we shall have the military and naval 
strength to make it very hard for any one to yield 
to the temptation to violate that law for some triv- 
ial advantage. Only by having that strength shall 
we be safe from peril, for we are no longer an iso- 
lated nation, — we are on the thoroughfares of 
the world. 

Our patriotic pacifist friends and orators tell 
us that America can never be in any real danger 
because of her isolation and that before any for- 
eign foe could put its foot upon our soil, a million 

83 



With the National Guard on the Border 

brave soldiers would rush to the endangered point 
and crush the enemy beneath an iron heel. All 
of which is very good, except that it takes twent}^- 
one days to hatch a chicken from an egg and much 
longer to make a soldier out of a civilian. This 
insanely foolish gush that the public swallows for 
the truth will some day threaten the very existence 
of our republic. It will cost the lives of thousands 
of our bravest boys who will be led like lambs to 
the slaughter to atone for the foolishness of a few 
crack-brained pacifists whose inimic fads of 
thought have acted as an opiate to destroy the 
memory, vitiate the reasoning and still the con- 
science of a patriotic people. It suits the mother 
to reason in the paths of the pacifist, and she sa^^s, 
' ' I am not raising ni}^ boy to be a soldier ; " it suits 
the father to dream dreams of smaller taxes for 
ships and armies and better roads about the farm. 
But these people forget little Belgium that relied 
on treaties and did not compete with others in 
maintaining an army but put all of its resources 
into beautiful public l)uildings and industrial de- 
velopment. The mothers of Belgium did not raise 
their boys to be soldiers, the fathers of Belgium 
would not have sympathized with spending their 
hard earned money on a larger and better equipped 
army; and they had more than pacifists to tell them 
that they were secure, the strongest nations of 
Europe Avere l)ound ]iy treaties to protect tlieir 

84 




The Price of Vacillation. Funeral of the seventeen Vera Cruz 
heroes, passing St. Paul's Church, New York City. 



With the National Guard on the Border 

neutrality. But, alas for the mothers of Belgium, 
they did not raise their sons to be soldiers so they 
are even now being deported by the Germans to do 
menial Avork for their conquerors. Moreover, the 
wonderful public buildings of Belgium, the price 
of her non-militant, money-loving heart, — what 
functions are they performing today? They are 
the headquarters of her foes. Neither should you 
be quick to curse the perfidy of Germany as the 
cause of this desolation. For years thoughtful peo- 
ple have looked upon the violation of Belgium's 
neutrality in case of a great European war as a 
military necessity. 

Stoddard in his wonderful lecture on Belgium, 
written a generation ago, presents the identical 
problem to us in the following language, "It is 
well understood that this (Belgium's) neutrality 
has been guaranteed by England, France, Rus- 
sia, Prussia and Austria; yet, from a military 
standpoint, it is also clear that the powerful armies 
likely to be organized upon its borders, in case of 
war, would be compelled to enter Belgium in ord^r 
to secure a position in which to attack ea.ch other. 
*****! recently heard a distinguished 
European diplomat say that if war should break 
out between France and Germany, the neutrality 
of neither Belgium nor Switzerland would be re- 
spected by either of the contending forces; that 
the violation of neutral rights would be absolutely 

86 



With the National Guard on the Border 

required by the necessities of the situation; and 
that the contending armies would undoubtedly he 
obliged to pass through one or both of these neutral 
countries, or possibly even to fight on their soil.'' 

"Military necessity," that's the key word. En- 
gland, in her righteousness could not recognize 
this as a justifiable basis for violating treaty 
rights at the beginning of the war and so launched 
her great fleets into the fray. But what has 
she done since! She has violated the soil of 
peaceful Greece, imposed illegal barriers on the 
commerce of Holland, Norway and Sweden, vio- 
lated the absolute rights of American commerce on 
the high seas and despoiled our mail and black- 
listed our merchants. Through what right has she 
done these things! None whatsoever, but in the 
name of "military necessity" and by superior 
force, which she so hypocritically abhors (in an- 
other), she does ten times instead of once the very 
thing which she so virtuously deprecated (in an- 
other). 

But Switzerland's neutralit}'' was not violated 
and why! That is the crux of the whole matter. 
Switzerland dei3ended upon no nation to defend her 
neutrality, but upon the preparedness of her o\^al 
citizens, every one of whom, no matter how humble 
or how peacefully inclined, is a soldier. Above 
the door of every Swiss home hangs a gov- 



An Adequate Military and Naval Program 

ernment rifle, a sealed package of cartridges, and a 
uniform. 

Switzerland has no standing army in the sense 
that other nations have, for every citizen is a sol- 
dier, ready at the call of his government to defend 
his native land. When the great European powers 
were mobilizing their troops and war was immi- 
nent, Switzerland's neutrality was not violated for 
the good and sufficient reason that she mobilized as 
quickly as they did and protected the integrity of 
her territory with such an energetic and imposing 
force at arms that no nation cared to cut its way 
through her borders in order to get at the throat 
of her foe. 



89 



CHAPTER V 
THE MOBILIZATION OF THE GUARD 

/^N Sunday night, June 18, 1916, came the Call 
^^ to Arms for which the National Guard had 
been waiting so long. After two years of exasper- 
ating expectancy, during which our government 
made scrap iron of typewriters, raised the price of 
white paper, indulged itself to drunkenness on 
grape juice and treaty writing, and coined a half 
dozen catchy peace phrases, the National Guard 
had come to think that our government did not 
give a '' tinker ^s dam" for the lives of its citizens 
or the honor of our flag. If you asked a National 
Guardsman what the United States was going to 
do about Mexico, he would give you a sickly grin 
and answer : ' ' There is such a thing as being too 
proud to fight. ' ' 

It had been nearly two years since the arrest 
of our seamen and the fruitless effort at Vera Cruz 
to secure reparation and apology. Then out of a 
clear sk}^ came the Call to Arms. It made the 
National Guard feel as silly as if they had been 
arrested by a woman-cop for expectorating on the 
sidewalk. Moreover, this feeling of being caught 
off their guard by innocuous femininity was ini- 

90 



With the National Guard on the Border 

mediately heightened into resentment when the 
men remembered that the quadrennial election was 
drawing nigh. There was a universal feeling that 
the National Guard was being used for political 
purposes. However, this attitude of mind was in- 
stantly changed into fervent patriotism and loyalty 
on receipt of the news that Captain Boyd and 
his troopers had been killed in an action mth the 
Carranzistas and that General Pershing's army 
was in imminent danger of attack. 

When the President's message reached the regi- 
mental headquarters of the National Guard, each 
organization Avas probably as badly scattered as 
our own and the problem of getting them immedi- 
ately together was no child's task. On that memo- 
rable Sunday one of the battalions of our regiment 
was staging a Civil War l3attle for the movies with 
Henry AYalthall as leading man. As the^^ disem- 
barked from the train Sunday' evening, they were 
met by the newsboys shouting "Extra," and read 
the thrilling news of the President's Call to Arms. 
As they marched through the streets of Chicago, 
the citizens crowded the sidewalks and gave them 
many a rousing cheer — which reminds us of those 
familiar lines of Kipling, entitled "Tommy:" 

I went into a public- 'ouse to get a pint o' beer. 
The publican 'e up an' sez, "We serve no red-coats here." 
The girls be'ind the bar they laughed an' giggled fit to die, 
I outs into the street again, an' to myself sez I: 

92 



The Mohilization of the Guard 

"O it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' Tommy, go away;" 
But it 's " Thank you. Mister Atkins, ' ' when the band begins to 

play, 
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play, 
O it 's " Thank you. Mister Atkins, ' ' when the band begins to play. 

For it's Tommy this, and Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the 

brute ! ' ' 
PJut it 's " Saviour of 'is country ' ' when the guns begin to shoot. 
Yes, it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please; 
But Tommy ain't a Bloomin' fool — you bet that Tommy sees. 

All of which is equally true of the National 
Guard and the Army in America. I well remember 
going into the sheriff's office at Springfield, 111,, 
in behalf of some of the boys who had gotten into 
trouble and the self-righteous way in which he ex- 
claimed, "I can't understand how the people of 
Springfield have been so long suffering with the 
soldiers as they have. ' ' Just think of it, and they 
have politicians and legislators there all the time ! 
The boys of the National Guard are like a parade 
of Sunday school children passing through a vice 
district when compared with the seasoned veterans 
of lawlessness and robbery that make our laws and 
sell food to our boys in the usual mobilization camp. 
They have as much heart and gratitude as a corpse 
and as much conscience and mercy as a scorpion, 
which nevertheless always seeks the shelter and 
protection of a soldier 's tent in times of storm and 
danger. 

93 




w 



The Mobilisation of the Guard 

Keturning now to my subject, the scattered con- 
dition of the Guard on Sunday, June 18th. Many 
of the boys were out of the city and had to be called 
back by wire. One of our Captains was in Detroit 
negotiating for a commission in the Canadian army. 
But the officers and top-sergeants worked like bees 
and before Monday noon the regiment was in readi- 
ness to move. In the meantime, the medical corps 
was doing superhuman work, examining the re- 
cruits which literally flowed into the Armory. 
Thus a hundred thousand men from a hundred 
thousand homes gathered beneath the Stars and 
Stripes and prayed fervently that they might be 
given an opportunity to redeem our country from 
the dishonor which Mexico had cumulatively 
heaped upon us for several years. 

From that quiet Sunday afternoon with its fam- 
ily reunions in homes and churches and parks; 
from quiet chats with father and mother, sweet- 
heart and wife, the men were suddenly called into 
a new life. Immediately the boy whose father had 
berated him as of no earthly use became worth a 
million dollars to the father's heart, while home 
and loved ones were just as suddenly transformed 
from their prosaic setting into the infinite value 
which only the possibility of loss can give to human 
love. 

In less than a week, twelve thousand Illinois 
Guardsmen were at Springfield, the state mobiliza- 

95 



With the National Guard on the Border 

tion center. Two Brigades of Infantry were en- 
camped at the State Fair Grounds, which, in honor 
of the Governor, was renamed Camp Dunne. The 
Seventh Infantry was put in Machinery Hall, the 
Second in the Cow Barns, the First in the Horse 
Stalls, the Third and Fourth in the Pig Sties, and 
the Eighth in the Sheep Pens. There was "some 
class" to our Camp, and we furnished an excellent 
example of the evolutionary doctrine of reversion 
to type. 

In addition to these two Brigades, commanded 
by Brigadier- Generals Foster and Hill, the First 
Cavalry, Engineers, Artillery, Field Hospitals and 
Signal Corps were all encamped on the other side 
of Springfield at Camp Lincoln. 

Living as I did, in Alton, Illinois, I responded to 
the instructions of the Adjutant and proceeded at 
once to the mobilization camp at Springfield, ar- 
riving there several days prior to the troop-trains, 
and thus had an unusual opportunity to note the 
preparations that were made for the men. 

It is remarkable that the government should have 
had chosen for so long the places of mobilization 
and yet have nothing in readiness for emergencies. 
The simplest program imaginable for so great and 
rich a country would seem to involve a depot, at 
each mobilization center, in which clothing, blank- 
ets, cots, tents and fire-arms should be kept for the 
maximum number of men, always ready to be dis- 

96 



The Mobilization of the Guard 

tributed immediately in case of a national emer- 
gency. It is qnite trne that the army regulations 
prescribed that, under such circumstances as I have 
mentioned, the United States Quartermaster's 
Corps shall send every needful thing in the way of 
equipment and supplies for the maximum number 









Wounded Mexican bandits at Columlaus, New Mexico. 

of men to the mobilization camps, but it is harder 
to get a shoe-string from the United States Govern- 
ment, when you really need it, than to rob a state 
bank. The United States Government is preserved, 
pickled and embalmed in red-ink with a shroud of 
red-tape. Consequently, the Quartermaster's 
Corps of the United States Army sent nothing to 



97 



With the National Guard on the Border 

Springfield, and the State of Illinois had. to assume 
the entire burden — which it did in a splendid man- 
ner. 

The preparations necessary for the reception of 
approximately twelve thousand troops were stu- 
pendous. The old fair grounds, filled with debris 
of every kind, had to be thoroughl}^ cleansed — tons 
upon tons of dirt, trash and manure had to be re- 
moved. The Adjutant-General's Staff worked 
night and day under terrible pressure, using every 
available man and vehicle, to accomplish the her- 
culean task of cleansing the Augean Stables and 
to make the common dwelling place of horses, cows, 
pigs and sheep, fit sleeping quarters for its most 
l^atriotic sons. After this enterprise, at which 
Major Funkhouser worked so hard that he didn't 
shave for a week, baled hay was distributed to the 
various stables and scattered in the stalls. When 
the boys arrived, the more enterprising ones put 
the ha}^ between their shelter halves and thus im- 
provised ticks upon which to sleep. 

The work of preparation for the arrival of the 
Guardsmen Avas a tribute to the patriotism and 
enterprise of General Dixon and his efficient Staff. 
Bathhouses were built and latrines dug and wired 
over in less than a week's time, and plumbers, 
carpenters, teamsters and day lal)orers were busy 
l3y the score. Quartermaster and conunissary sup- 
plies were purchased and placed in depots at both 

98 



The Mobilisation of the Guard 

camiDS ; fuel was hauled, tools and other necessities 
provided in anticipation of the troops' arrival. 
Whatever faults may have been true of mobiliza- 
tion camps during the Spanish- American A¥ar or 
in other camps throughout this country last sum- 
mer, the mobilization camj)s in Illinois were as 
nearly perfect as human ingenuity, thrift and 
thoughtfulness could make them. Everything pos- 
sible was done for the comfort, health and happi- 
ness of the men. ^ From Governor Dunne down to 
the least representative of the executive and mili- 
tary functions, the service rendered the National 
Guard was ' ' A-plus. ' ' 

The da^^ before, the regiments began to arrive, 
and they were delayed from four to ten days by 
these preparations — the mess details reached camp 
with the necessary storage tents, stoves and equip- 
ment. There were about half enough axes, tools, 
tent pegs, etc., to go around, but they fell to with 
a vim and did wonders in a few hours. Frederick 
the Great never said a truer thing than that "An 
army travels on its belly." To illustrate the haste 
and efficiency with which militarj^ men can move, 
lieutenant Luke of the First Illinois Infantry was 
summoned on Wednesday evening, two hours be- 
fore a train left for Springfield, and told to make 
a detail, collect stoves, mess-tents and equipment, 
and proceed to Springfield. This detail was 
chosen, wagons ordered and loaded with necessary 

99 



With the National Guard on the Border 

paraphernalia, and in two honrs they were on 
board the train. By five o'clock the next evening, 
every stove was in place and every mess-tent 
erected. The valne of military discipline and train- 




Gathering the Mexican dead after Columhus, New Mexico, raid. 

ing can readily be seen in snch an example as this. 
Only officers and men of experience can act efii- 
ciently in snch an emergency. The details from 
other regiments that received orders at the same 
liour as the First, arrived on later trains and had 

100 



The Mobilization of the Guard 

barely begun their work — in fact were scurrying 
around looking for tent pegs and axes when Lieu- 
tenant Luke had finished his task. It was this 
alertness which made it possible for us to be the 
first national guard regiment in the United States 
to reach its post in the Southwest. As an evidence 
of this expeditiousness of movement, the regular 
army officer who met us at San Antonio asked one 
of our staff: "A¥ho is the Colonel of this regi- 
ment!" And on being told that it was Colonel 
J. B. Sanborn, he said, "Well, he must be a Avonder, 
for the rapidit}^ with which your troop train was 
unloaded has been a lesson to me, accustomed as I 
am to the regular army's methods." 

To return to the mobilization problems. It may 
l3e well to consider some of them in detail. The 
double 0A¥nership of property constituted one of 
the most serious difficulties. In times of peace the 
state had furnished uniforms, blankets, etc., but in 
the federal service the government is supposed to 
furnish these. So a survey had to be made of every 
article of state property and a value fixed thereon 
so that the government could make a settlement 
with the state. This was a task that had to be 
completed at once while arms and uniforms and 
blankets, to the limit of the state's supply, were 
issued the new recruits. 

Moreover, when the troops began to pour in on 
Friday, June 23rd, there was no goose-step parade 

101 



With the National Guard on the Border 

awaiting them but a program of hard work. The 
rookie squads were drilling all the time, fresh re- 
cruits were arriving on every train, bayonet prac- 
tice, squad and company drills were incessant. At 
the same time, company, battalion and regimental 
officers were working like bees to complete their 
paper work and fulfill all the government require- 
ments which must precede being mustered into the 
Federal Service. It was understood that the first 
regiment mustered in was to be the first to leave 
for the Border, and, consequenth^, the rivalr}^ was 
intense. Our regiment completed this work first, 
and we were mustered in at once. 

Some of the men did not want to take the Federal 
oath — did not think they could afford to do so be- 
cause of their families or obligations. They had 
joined the National Guard not for Avar but for 
peace, they said, and they asked if they could be 
forced to take a new. oath that enlarged their obli- 
gation. I cannot answer this question, but I know 
how the problem was met. The orders were ex- 
plicit — "If any man refuses to step forward and 
answer to his name when it is called or refuses to 
raise his hand and take the oath, he is to be jerked 
out of line and put under arrest pending court- 
martial. ' ' Whether the officers of the regular army 
were within their rights in meeting the situation 
this way I cannot say, but of this I am certain — 
bluff or no bluff — it worked. I think we had only 

102 







S' * 




With the National Guard on the Border 

one man in our regiment who refused to be mus- 
tered in and he was immediately placed under ar- 
rest. Later, he did what the ''Good Book" speaks 
of God as often doing^ — he "repented himself" and 
took the oath. In other cases, the parents were 
doing everything they could to keep their boys from 
being mustered in. As each company returned to 
its row of horse stalls, they would- break into a 
cheer. A father came rushing into one. of the com- 
XDanies as it returned from taking the oath, and 
said, ' ' Where 's my boy 1 ' ' The boys were cheering 
wildly, but at this a hush fell over them. ' ' He was 
taken out of line and put under arrest, sir, for re- 
fusing to take the oath." "0 my boy, my baby 
boy, they will kill him, he isn't strong enough to 
go." About that time, I put my hands on his 
shoulders and pushed him out with the injunction 
to the boys to "Let's have another cheer," for that 
old cry-baby was about to make a funeral party 
of our regiment. His boy later took the oath, 
passed every examination, and never enjoyed bet- 
ter health in his life than under the open skies of 
Texas. 

When the mustering in of the regiment was com- 
pleted, we were rushed through the medical ex- 
amination. Several groups of six surgeons and as 
many clerks, working in different places, made a 
physical examination of each man that would make 
an insurance company's examination look like 

104 



The Mobilisation of the Guard 

nothing at all and they finished with yon in about 
two minutes. You hopped on a scale — your weight, 
height and chest measurements were taken in five 
seconds; another doctor slapped his super-ear on 
your heart and lungs, pushed you on to a third who 
cracked you on the knee, a fourth surgeon ex- 
amined you for rupture and disease, the next phy- 
sician looked at your teeth and whispered in both 
of your ears, and the last one tested your eyes with 
his paste-board hieroglyphics. Every one of these 
doctors was on the square except the eye man. He 
made me take off my glasses — the only apparel I 
had on — and I could only read his top line ; and 
then he marked me minus nothing ! To see twelve 
hundred men going through a physical examina- 
tion was like the display of chickens and turkeys 
on market day just before Thanksgiving. The like 
of the figures and forms they had has never been 
seen on land or sea, and if they had been put on 
the road as chorus girls, their show would have 
been stranded at its first stop. Have you ever seen 
a horse that was pulling a rag wagon to save the 
owner funeral expenses! That's the way some of 
the bony ones looked. Then, have you ever seen a 
horse that had the botts or was suffering with colic 
in the Spring of the year? That's the way the fat 
ones looked. Believe me, it was some dog and pony 
show ! Nobody knows, when the band plays and the 
flag waves and the imposing regiment goes sweep- 

105 



With the National Guard on the Border 

ing- hj, just how ridieulons they would look if 
dressed onlj^ iu nature's garb. I saw a regular 
down in San Antonio who wore his belt around his 
knees because they didn't make them long enough 




— Copyright, International Film Service. 

United States troopers searching a Mexican who had crossed the 
border into the United States. The vigil of the troops was keener 
after the outrages committed March 9 when Villa's followers in- 
vaded the small town of Columbus, New Mexico, and killed a 
number of soldiers and citizens, among them two women. 



to go around his stomach — he was some bellicose 
Adonis. 

Very few of our men Avere disqualified, for the 

106 



The Mobilization of the Guard 

regimental surgeons had been extremely severe in 
their examinations of the men to forestall having 
the organization depleted by the regular army test. 
In the case of officers, phj'^sical disqualifications 
Avere waived by the government, through applica- 
tion to the War Department, if the officers con- 
sented, in their turn, to waive any pension rights 
that might accrue from injuries arising from their 
physical deficiencies. My own experience in this 
respect was rather unique. A month after we 
reached San Antonio, Surgeon-Major Amerson 
presented me with a paper which he requested that 
I should sign. '' What's this?" said I. ^'Your 
waiver of pension rights," said he. ''Well, why 
should I waive the right to a pension?" "Didn't 
you know," said he, "that you were disqualified 
because of your eyes and that I wired to Washing- 
ton the day of your examination asking that your 
disability be waived!" "Not until this minute. 
Major, but I thank you for the compliment you 
have paid my patriotism." After which little 
episode I proceeded to sign away my preferred 
risks in the "United States Insurance Company." 
So, likewise, did a number of the other officers. 

As soon as the physical examinations were over, 
we were ready to proceed to the Border. Those 
last two days at Springfield, when the newspaper 
bulletins were hourly giving us news concerning 
the shortening of Pershing's column and the hos- 

107 



With the National Guard on the Border 

tile redisposition of Carranza's troops, are never 
to be forgotten. It was with clenched fists, fast 
beating hearts, and a queer sort of nervous exhila- 
ration that the First Infantry of Illinois marched 
through the densely packed and wildly cheering 
crowd of soldiers and civilians to entrain for 
"Somewhere on the Border." 



108 



CHAPTER VI 

ENTRAINMENT 

A SOLDIER, no matter how much brains he may 
^^^ possess, surrenders it all when he enlists in the 
Arnty. He is allowed the same degree of discretion 
as the horse with a bit in his mouth. From the 
rookie to the brigadier-general there is a degree of 
ignorance concerning their future that the man in 
civilian clothes can never understand, else he would 
not ask so many foolish questions. Concerning the 
policies of his superiors and his own future move- 
ments the soldier is a perfect ignoramus. 

When we reached Springfield speculation was 
rife as to how long we would spend in the mobiliza- 
tion camp. The guesses ran from two weeks to 
tv/ice as many months, or until after the November 
elections. Some said, "We will never see the Bor- 
der." The only one who refused to discuss the 
question was Colonel Sanborn. He maintained 
that such speculations were a waste of time, and 
that a soldier's duty was to obey orders as they 
came and not attempt to forecast the future. But 
to those who have not been steeled by forty years 
of military experience this attitude of mind is a 
practical impossibility. I enjoyed getting as many 

109 





\) ' 


4^ q^ 


mi 






• rt QJ 


• ^ ^^ 


cS -t-i 


-r^ S-l 


-1 


&^ 



Entrainment 

opinions as possible and, with the freedom of a 
chaplain, discussing the question with the youngest 
rookie in the Kegiment, and, believe me, these boys 
had the warmest interest in the subject. From the 
first week out the boys were talking about "dear 
old Chi" and the girls they had left behind. 

Our regiment reached Springfield on Friday 
morning, June the 23rd, and left for San Antonio 




United States artillery going into action in Mexico. 

on the ensuing Wednesday night by way of the 
Chicago and Alton, and Missouri, Kansas and 
Texas Railways. The first section reached San 
Antonio Friday afternoon at five o'clock. During 
the entire time we were in constant communication 
with Washington and General Funston's head- 
quarters. Originally our regiment was to have 
gone to Southern California, but at the last mo- 

111 



With the National Guard on the Border 

rnent orders were received that our destination Avas 
San Antonio. ''How did I find this out?" From a 
civilian of course. The last night that we were in 
Springfield, Bishop Fallows, the grand old man of 
Chicago, a Brigadier-General during the Civil War 
and for many years Chaplain of the Second Illinois 
Infantry, told me in confidence that we were going 
to San Antonio. Owing to the sickness of his wife 
the good Bishop had to forego the pleasure of ac- 




On the firing line. 

companying his hoys to the Border and had come 
to Springfield to tell everybody good-bye. Yet in 
spite of the fact that a feAV of us knew that we were 
on our Avay to Fort Sam Houston, the bo^^s on the 
troop train did not know for \\\m\y hours after we 
left Springfield what our destination Avas to be. 
AVith all due deference to my superiors I think that 



112 



Entrainment 

so much secrecy is arrant nonsense. There is some 
reason for European powers to proceed after this 
fashion, honeycombed as they are with spies, but 
not so wlien we are dealing with a chaotic govern- 
ment such as Mexico. 

To those who are uninitiated in the mj^steries of 
a troop train a little sketch may be of interest. It 
takes three trains or three sections to carry a regi- 
ment, a battalion to each section. When orders 
reached us about four o'clock that we were to en- 
train that night, consider the problem that had to be 
met. Rations for several days must be drawn and 
placed aboard the trains ; all of the eciuipment must 
be thoroughly cleansed, securely packed, trans- 
ferred in wagons and loaded into the freight cars 
which are placed in front of the troop trains. Other 
freight cars must be equipped as kitchens, ^^dth 
stoves and every other needful thing such as fuel 
and food placed therein. As you Avill readily see 
the kitchen car should be an express coach A^ith 
decent springs, but in our case it was just an ordi- 
nary freight car that played "jump the rope" for 
a thousand miles with stoves, coffee, canned goods 
and bread piled to the roof when we started. This 
kitchen car is placed in the middle of the train to 
facilitate feeding the battalion. The detail which 
accomplished this and much more in less than half 
a day performed a twentieth century miracle. 
Nothing short of a military organization could 

113 



With the National Guard on the Border 

achieve such results in so short a time. At noon 
on Wednesday, June 28th, we were a jDeaceful mili- 
tary camp, at nine o'clock we were on the train 
ready to go anywhere from Maine to Oregon with- 
out stopping except to change our train crews and 
engines; and all this was accomplished from four 
in the afternoon to nine at night or let us say while 
a woman would be making her toilet to go to a 
dance. 

Our regiment was fortunate enough to have tour- 
ist sleepers for all the men and a standard Pull- 
man for officers and newspaper reporters. Many 
organizations that followed us were compelled to 
use day coaches for want of better facilities. 

Life aboard a troop train in such an emergency 
as we thought we were facing is full of interest. 
No narrative can give the atmosphere that pre- 
vails, a layman simply can't understand it even if 
it were possible to give mth accuracy every inci- 
dent and detail of the trip. The closest feeling like 
it in the world is the sensation of a football team as 
it prepares for the Thanksgiving game. There 
were some men callous enough to forget everything 
in a game of poker but with most of the officers and 
men there was that degree of nervousness which I 
have felt and seen others show just before the 
''kick off." 

The healtli of the soldiers is always a paramount 
consideration, and is never lost sight of even on 

114 



Entrainment 

the train. Every morning and evening sick call is 
announced just as if the men were in the camp. 
The change of water, food and climate affects every 
one to a certain degree. Cathartics and ''honey," 
as castor oil is called, are in great demand. Each 
troop train has one physician and a portion of the 
hospital corps in attendance. To illustrate the 




Brigadier-General D. Jack Foster and his staff in front of the 
First Illinois Brigade (Infantry) Headquarters at Leon Springs 
Military Reservation. 



value of this constant and thorough supervision of 
the men's health, I remember that on our San Fran- 
cisco trip during the summer of 1915 the surgeon 
in charge of one section told us that he used up all 
of the medicine with which he started and had to 

115 



With the National Guard on the Border 

lay in a new supply before he reached the coast; 
hut that every man reached California in the pink 
of condition. AVhere could you find seven or eight 
liundred civilians who could make a transconti- 
nental trip and feel fit as a fiddle when they ar- 
rived? On our way to Texas the medical corps 
not onl}^ supervised the general health of the men 
but vaccinated ever^^body against smallpox. More- 
over the value of sanitation was never lost sight of; 
in cars crowded to their capacity with men and 
equipment neatness and cleanliness was insisted 
upon. Day or night an inspection of the cars 
showed that a ceaseless vigil was being kept over 
every item that made for the health and well-being 
of the men. This care extended to the food as well 
as to the sleeping quarters. Not a meal was served 
that had not been previoush^ examined b}^ the med- 
ical officers to see that its quality and variety was 
acceptable. Moreover the company and battalion 
officers were alwa3^s on the alert to improve the con- 
ditions and ameliorate the hardships of inconveni- 
ences which the men might suffer from such con- 
gestion. I remember that Major Davis sat up all 
night that a sick man might 1)e provided witli a 
single berth. He had first requested one of his 
lieutenants to inconvenience himself by doubling up 
with another officer so as to make possible the rear- 
rangements necessary, and on this officer's grumb- 
ling about having to make room for a sergeant, the 

116 



Entrainment 

Major ordered him to sleep in his, the Major's 
berth, while he sat up through the night. This les- 
son will probably suffice that officer for a lifetime. 
I have heard many men from other regiments, and 
a few of our own, say that their company officers 
would be the first men killed in battle, and you can 
not always blame them for some officers are un- 
doubtedly thoughtless and brutal. But in our 
regiment the officers were uniformly thoughtful 
of the men, the one or two exceptions which 
I could give being the best proof that such 
was the rule. Not for one day could an of- 
ficer hope to hold a commission in the First Il- 
linois Infantry and openl}^ disregard the comfort 
or well-being of his men. 

None of us knew just how much time would 
elapse before we saw service. Wars are like run- 
away weddings — there are no announcement cards 
sent out in advance. Consequently we did not 
waste time on this trip but everybody got down to 
work. No one was allowed to idle away his mo- 
ments. The men were given lectures on the compo- 
sition and care of their rifles and other equipment. 
When it is remembered that many of the recruits 
had never handled fire-arms in their lives the neces- 
sity for this is apparent, and even if some of them 
had done so a soldier must know his rifle in a far 
more intimate way than the ordinary sportsman. 
Shooting a shotgun at targets from ten to fifty 

117 



With the National Guard on the Border 

yards distant with a hundred chances to hit, is a 
very different thing to shooting a rifle with a single 
ball at from two hundred to a thousand yards. 
Therefore the men have to be instructed in the 
principles of holding and sighting their pieces as 
well as the care and construction of the same. Lec- 
tures were also given to the men on military cour- 
tesy and discipline. A rookie, as the new recruits 
are called, can always be spotted by his want of 
military bearing and courtesy. A slovenly salute 
in a soldier is unpardonable, and training in speech, 
attitude and gesture are necessary prerequisites in 
the making of a soldier. By such exercises as these 
the men's time was filled. The officers and non- 
commissioned officers were busy in the study of 
various military problems, for war is a science so 
intricate and complex that those who enter the 
service whether as regulars or national guardsmen 
must be ever on the alert to keep themselves rea- 
sonably efficient. To play the game like experts 
calls for the same degree of stud^^ and practice 
which marks the expert in every other field of 
human endeavor. 

The greatest draAvback and inconvenience of the 
journey to San Antonio was caused through the 
trains having been furnished with freiglit cars as 
kitchens. As I have previously suggested, it was 
impossible for the cooks to achieve satisfactory 
results with the stoves erected in freight cars. 

118 



Entrainment 

There were no springs in these cars, and often the 
cooks would prepare a meal only to have some or 
all of it thrown off of the stoves, causing a great 
waste of food and a greater hardship to the men. 
One morning the breakfast was all but ruined by 
such an accident, and it was necessary to wire 
ahead for coffee to be prepared for the four hun- 
dred men of our section. That was what the boys 
would call a "nifty order," "Four-hundred coffees 
if you please sir! No, that's all, thank you, good 
day." "How did they serve it to us?" In Avash 
boilers, of course. I remember going into the 
kitchen car the night that we lost our breakfast. 
The car was tossing about so mldly that the cooks 
had abandoned the breakfast and deserted the car, 
trusting that something might be left for the morn- 
ing. Coupled with this disadvantage of freight 
cars was the fact that our troop trains often drew 
freight engineers who handled us as if we were 
cattle going to the market. On one occasion the 
commanding officer of the second section, Major 
Clinnin, stopped the train and refused to go further 
until the railroad company should furnish a more 
experienced and considerate engineer. Despite 
these limitations it is probable that our organiza- 
tion fared better than most of the regiments which 
were hurried to the Border, for every man had a 
berth in which to sleep and the most considerate 
care that experienced officers could give them. In 

119 



With the National Guard on the Border 

most respects I believe that the incidents of onr 
journey were common to other regiments which 
were hurried to the Border in June of 1916. But 
the regiments which w^ere kept in mobilization 
camps for three or four months before going to 
the Border knew none of that exhilaration which 
we felt during the days when war seemed imminent. 



120 



CHAPTER VII 

ON THE BORDER 

nPHE arrival and departure of soldiers in San 
-^ Antonio creates as much stir as a AVorld's Sun- 
day School Convention in Chicago ; Avere it not that 
the newspapers make it a point to record every- 
thing that happens the vast majority of citizens in 
both places would be ignorant that anything out of 
the ordinary was transpiring. Our advent in that 
city, which naturally enough was quite significant 
to us, was of as much interest to the people of San 
Antonio as the arrival of a chewing gum drummer. 
AVe were met at the train by an officer of the De- 
partment and two old First Infantry boys. Still 
this rather broad statement must be qualified, for 
San Antonio has a large Mexican population and 
the white people always sleep a bit more securely 
when there is a large garrison at the Post. This 
is not a criticism of the people of that splendid 
city, they lived up to the finest precedents of South- 
ern hospitality ; it is simply a statement of the un- 
eventfulness of our arrival. General Funston's 
representative informed us that trucks were in 
readiness to convey our baggage to Camp Wilson 
which was about a mile beyond Fort Sam Houston. 

121 



With the National Guard on the Border 

The army truck, with which we made our first 
acquaintance here, is a wonderful machine. It is 
a revelation of strength and efficiency, Avith an 
engine that has the power of a diminutive locomo- 
tive and a body the size of a small freight car. I 
remember that we had some reason for moving one 
of the freight cars while unloading so one of the 
army trucks was backed up against it and made 
that freight car look like a baby buggy. What a 
difference there was in the rapidity and ease with 
which these army trucks handled our supplies and 
equipment and the manner in which the horsos and 
drays had done the same thing only tAvo days be- 
fore at Springfield. Nevertheless the army mule 
and the old-fashioned wagon are still as indispen- 
sable as ever. It takes both the "Missouri T^vin- 
six Chalmers" and the neAv army motor truck to 
adequately provide for the transportation needs of 
an army. 

The first battalion reached Camp Wilson just be- 
fore dark. Before leaving the train Ave had each 
received a sandAvich in lieu of supper. The boys 
hastily devoured this morsel and fell to Avith a vim 
erecting shelter-halves or pup-tents. Some of 
the cooks, Avho Avere just about the finest felloAvs 
in the Avorld, insisted on breAving coffee for the boys 
before they craAvled into their dog houses for rest. 
In the meauAvhile the officers Avere unfolding their 
cots and preparing to sleep in the open beneath a 

124 



On the Border 

wonderful Southern sky. As we unfolded our bed 
rolls the searchlight at the Aviation Field contin- 
ually played upon us. It was very nice of our 
Uncle Sam to furnish us with such a brilliant lamp 
by which to make our cots and find our pajamas. 
No occasion of the summer was more inspiring 
than this first night in God's out-of-doors with only 
the sky as our canopy and ten million stars as our 
light. To those who can feel the throb of the uni- 
verse and appreciate the beauty of the milky way 
this was a never to be forgotten experience. No 
sky is So beautiful as the Southern sky, no sunsets 
so radiant, no sunrises so inspiring and no land 
more bewitching than the rolling plains of Texas. 
But all of these pleasant impressions might have 
been blasted had we arrived two days later, as 
another regiment did, amid a fearful doA\aipour of 
rain that changed our otherwise delightful camp 
into a swamp of the stickiest black mud imaginable, 
upon which this regiment had to spread their 
blankets and sleep as best the}^ could. One of the 
striking instances of pitching our camp was con- 
nected with the arrival of the second battalion. 
They reached San Antonio about eleven o'clock at 
night and were ordered to disembark and proceed 
to Camp Wilson, which they did, arriving at about 
one o'clock. The stars had disappeared and the 
night was inky black, yet under the direction of 
their able major and the company commanders 

125 



With the National Guard on the Border 

they measured the distance for their company 
streets and erected their pup-tents in as perfect a 
line as if it were broad day. Only two weeks be- 
fore this battalion had performed the same stunt 
when playing the game of war with Henry Walt- 
hall for the movies. Practice makes perfect in 
everything. 

Now to consider our life on the Border. To be 
exact, of course, we were not on the Border at all, 
except constructively speaking. We were at the 
Department Headquarters with many points of the 
Border within easy reach and with probably a bet- 
ter chance to see actual service than other organi- 
zations which were confined to any particular sec- 
tion. The railway facilities of San Antonio made 
it possible for us to reach any point from El Paso 
to the Gulf in a few hours, and how we did hope 
and pray that something would break loose along 
the International Line that would give us a chance 
to see a real good fight. The greatest regret of 
every national guardsman who devoted the past 
summer to the service of the government is that 
there was no chance to follow Old Glory into battle. 
There is no better way to take the sting out of 
death and rob the grave of its victory than to die 
for one's countr^^ But the only war that any of 
us saw was that between the newspaper men. 
When one of the reporters for a morning paper 
called some of the fellows Avho represented the 

126 




On the lookout for bandits in the flat country of the Lower 
Rio Grande. 



With the National Guard on the Border 

evening papers ''cub reporters" we came very 
near witnessing civil war. Then when some of 
them crazy to get real news had nightmares and 
swore that we had been fired upon by Mexican 
snipers we were witnesses of another near-war be- 
tween General Fmiston, represented by his aide, 
Captain Fitzhugh Lee, and these same reporters. 
The facts were that some of the soldiers from the 
Fort and from our own brigade were accustomed 
to wandering not far from the camp and shooting at 
the jack-rabbits, and Avhen some of these boys acci- 
dentally turned their high-powered rifles or pistols 
toward the camp it gave the reporters a chance for 
a good story. Now without exception these news- 
paper men were a fine bunch of fellows, but we saw 
enough to realize how embarrassing their presence 
can become to an army. They make their living 
by grinding out stories, the better the story the 
l)etter the living ; and that is the reason that news- 
paper men are a danger to an arni}^, for the^^ can 
make up better stories than they can find. Such 
stories can create a world of annoyance and cause 
such anxiety and grief that it becomes damaging 
to the morals of the men and a burden to their 
leaders. God only knows what General Funston 
went through with because of newspaper men, for 
let it be remembered that the pen is still more 
powerful than the sword and these men wielded 
the pen. Outside of the press warfare we were 

128 



On the Border 

safer in San Antonio than we would have been in 
Chicago, and none of lis had more than the feeling 
that we were a reserve force ready to be launched 
at any portion of the line that might be threatened 
by a hostile Mexican force. 

In anticipation of our arrival at Camp A¥ilson 
we found that the government was doing ever}^- 
thing that it could to make an ideal camp of what 
had previously been a barren plain. Bathhouses 
and latrines were being constructed and water con- 
nections made with the city. These things may 
sound like little things to the layman but they are 
fundamental to an army's existence. With char- 
acteristic American energy a stupendous task had 
been completed in a few days. But you can't do 
some things no matter how much energy you may 
expend; and so it followed that in other respects 
the government's limitations came early to light. 
There were no requisition blanks upon which to 
draw food for the regiment. Our economical, 
peace-loving people — who will make any sacrifice 
in times of, emergency — are so short-sighted that 
they will not support Congress, if in the days of 
peace it seeks to prepare for war. You can't fool 
a Congressman, — he knows what the people want 
and he gives it to them, so that they will return him 
to Congress or better still to the Senate. The pa- 
triotism of the American people in times of peace 
is summed up in some such formula as this, "We 

129 



With the National Guard on the Border 

will elect to Congress the man who builds expensive 
post offices at crossroads, and sends ns seed for our 
gardens, but what do we care for the Army. ' ' Thus 
it happened that Congress had made such small ap- 
propriations to the Army that when the President 
called the National Guard to arms there were not 
even enough printed blanks upon which food might 
be requisitioned for the men. With this thought in 
mind let's turn to Kipling's "Tommy" once more: 

I went into a theater as sober as could be, 

They gave a drunk civilian room, but 'adn't none for me; 

They sent me to the gallery or round the music- 'alls. 

But when it comes to fighting, Lord! they'll shove me in the stalls! 

Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, 'ow's yer 

soul?" 
But it 's " Thin red line of 'eroes ' ' when the drums begin to roll, 
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll, 
O it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" wTien the drums begin to roll. 

Congress can spend thousands of dollars in 
printing speeches that are never read, with gener- 
ous quantities of "applause" sprinkled in to im- 
press any fool who hasn't more sense than to read 
the stuff, but it cannot afford to spend one cent 
extra in making provision for the exigencies of war 
even to printing the necessary forms which its own 
red-tape makes mandatory. No wonder in the light 
of those first few days that men hesitate about en- 
listing in the United States Army. For a while 
we were fed on bread without butter, coffee without 

130 



On the Border 

sugar, potatoes without either salt or pepper, and 
meat without seasoning of any kind. Those who 
have translated the mess-call as follows have some 
excuse for doing so : 

Sou-pee, sou-pee, sou-pee. 

Without a single bean ; 
Por-kee, por-kee, por-kee. 

Without a strip of lean; 
Cof-fee, cof-fee, cof-fee, 

Without a drop of cream. 

Such experiences as this explain and interpret 
the change which some enterprising and evidently 
experienced young man had made in an enlistment 
advertisement which I recently saw on an elevated 
train in Chicago. This advertisement originally 
read, ' ' Young man, are you not willing to fight for 
your country! Then will you not join the army at 
once?" It had been changed to read as follows, 
"Young man, are you not willing to starve for your 
country?" In answer to which the reviser had 
written in bold letters, ' ' NO ! ' ' 

Moreover the Government was short on blankets. 
Some of our boys remained in Texas a month with- 
out a blanket to cover them. Those who know that 
climate are well aware that even in July the nights 
are cold. Before morning the change in tempera- 
ture is so sudden that two blankets are necessary 
if one is to rest comfortably. The Government was 
also short with cots, tents, pistols, etc. 

131 



With the National Guard on the Border 

It was our misfortune to have been forced to 
take to Texas with us those men Avho had been 
mustered into the Federal Service and afterwards 
found unfit in the physical examination. We left 
Springfield so suddenly that there was no oppor- 
tunity to receive instructions what to do with these 
men, and Colonel Lewis, who was the reg'ular army 




— Copyright. I ittcrnatioiial Film Service. 
Cavalry and artillery horses at El Paso awaiting ne^^' troops. 



officer in charge of our mobilization camp, told us 
to take them on to Texas and then send them home. 
There were about forty-five of these men who were 
called "derelicts." They felt that their situation 
was very unjust. They had been declared unfit and 
yet they were required to proceed as if they Avere 
most fit. On the marcli of the third battalion from 
the depot to Camp AVilson at about eight o'clock in 

132 



On the Border 

the morning- one of these derelicts who had a weak 
heart fell out of ranks looking as if he were dead. 
I was on my way to the post office, for chaplains in 
the field are the official postmasters, when this 
derelict's captain hailed me in the "jitney" and 
asked if I wonld not take this boy to the camp. As 




''Gasoline cavalry" drawn up at the International Bridge, El 
Paso, Texas, waiting to act as guard to the Tenth Cavalry pris- 
oners w^hen they were released by the Mexicans. 

soon as we had gotten him into the ''jitney" 
another Avith a complexion like that of a dead man 
asked if he couldn't also ride. Both of these men 
were derelicts, which shows how very important 
it is for the Government to make a rigid examina- 
tion of applicants for military service. Not only 
do the weak have to be nursed and at times carried 
on their comrades' backs, but they are a nuisance to 

133 



With the National Guard on the Border 

the organization. Their officers must be consid- 
erate of them, and at the same time too mnch con- 
sideration "will make some of the other boys jealous 
and lazy as Avell as give them an opportunity to 
cry "favoritism." When the Government finally 
gave us instructions to muster these boys out of 
the service our regiment Avas camped at Leon 
Springs Military Reservation some twenty-five 
miles from the city. We had left the derelicts vdth 
the Third and Fourth Infantry at Camp Wilson. 
But these regiments were ordered to New Brauns- 
f eld and so our boys were passed on to the Eighth 
(or colored) Infantry. They were a sore bunch. I 
made a trip to San Antonio to bid them good-bye 
and try to put them in a good humor with every- 
thing and everybody before they returned to Chi- 
cago. It was a stiff job. They openly declared 
that the officers of the Third and Fourth had been 
more considerate of them than the officers of the 
First, and that the Eighth or Colored Infantry had 
treated them best of all. I talked to these boys 
for about half an hour trying to make them forget 
their hardships and remember only the pleasant 
side of their experiences, during which one little 
Jew spoke up and said, "Veil, vill 3^ou please to 
tell me vhy it vuz dey never gifed me neider a cot 
nor a blanket ? " So far as I can see the only reason 
Avas that the good people of America do not raise 
their sons to be soldiers and consequently do not 

134 



On the Border 

give a hang what happens to the men who offer 
their lives for the protection of our great common- 
wealth. 

No sooner had we reached Camp Wilson than the 
serious task of making it thoroughly sanitary and 
Avholesome began. This involved digging trenches 
to drain the camp. All of these trenches except 
a regular sewer main that carried off all of the 
water were dug by the boys. A bit of pure cad- 
dishness lies hidden in that simple statement. 
Every time we left our camp we had to fill up 
every trench and leave the camp ground as smooth 
as a carpet floor, then on returning after a week 
or so the boys had to open all of these trenches 
again. All of the brains in the United States 
couldn 't persuade me that this was not a piece of 
unmitigated foolishness. It is as unjust as it is 
unreasonable. Men do not enlist in the United 
States Army to work as day laborers, and such ex- 
periences are enough to break the spirit of men 
and make them think twice before offering them- 
selves as day-laborers at fifty cents per day. If 
an organization was leaving a camp permanently 
this would be all right, but when they leave all of 
their baggage on the ground why should they fill 
trenches which they will have to reopen next week? 
Which reminds me that all soldiers like to laugh 
at the Band because they resent more than any 
other group having to do this kind of work. Yet 

135 



. With the National Guard on the Border 

the Band is right about it, how can they dig ditches 
and scrub pans and kettles and then play delicate 
musical instruments? No group of men in the 
First Infantry made the same degree of sacrifice 
for their country as did the Band. They were 
nearly all married men; the}^ had enlisted Avith 
the understanding that they should not be required 
to go to war and yet in an emergency waived this 
condition and brought their own instruments into 
the service, many of which were ruined b}^ expo- 
sure to dirt and rain. If the Government does not 
reimburse them for these losses we should all be 
ashamed of its niggardliness. 

Trench digging was only one item in the san- 
itary program. Incinerators were dug for every 
company street. These are holes about eight feet 
long, four feet wide and two feet deep, lined with 
stone or brick, in Avhicli fires are kept burning and 
upon which all refuse and dish water must be 
thrown to eliminate flies and thus protect the 
health of the organization. These incinerators 
were examined by the medical corps every day to 
see that they were in good condition; and period- 
ically the stones or bricks were removed and crude 
oil poured upon the ground in and about the hole. 
This was then ignited to destroy the larvae of flies. 
No single item of camp life is so strenuously em- 
phasized as this war against the fly. Woe to the 
cook, the company or the regiment which the Gov- 

136 



With the National Guard on the Border 

ernment inspectors find negligent in this particu- 
lar. If flies are seen hovering over some spot 
apart from the incinerators it is of no avail for 
the cook to swear that he had only poured clean 
water there, for the regular army officer making 
the inspection will simply reply, "I would rather 
take the flies' word than 3^ours, for they won't 
settle down to feast on pure water." 

Another health measure was the typhoid inocu- 
lation Avhich began as soon as we reached San 
Antonio. Every officer and man was required to 
submit to this inoculation, Avhich is said to be 
harmless, but as a matter of fact leaves a person 
pretty groggy for a day or so, and was especially 
hard on the men who were forced to proceed with 
their daily duties in a blazing sun. There were 
no injurious effects from this measure, but it 
wasn't as simple as the doctors, who are all more 
or less professional prevaricators, told us it was 
going to be. I know from experience and from 
what others said that it wasn't as innocuous as 
they would have had us believe. A great many of 
us would have been perfectly mlling to have paid 
for the serum and let them put it in some other 
person's back. Lieutenant Kendall was a good 
Christian man, a regular Methodist from a small 
country toAvn and had more religion than all the 
rest of our Chicago surgeons put together. Now 
you Avould think that you could trust a man like 

138 



On the Border 

that and he vowed that you wouldn't feel any ef- 
fects from the serum; so I bared my back and he 
punctured the skin right behind the shoulder blade. 
Fine enough thought I as I began to dress, and 
then suddenly became as dizzy as if I were in an 
aeroplane. ''Sit down," said the doctor, and I 
sat. Then he pressed my head between my knees 
and suggested that I had better take things easy 
the rest of the day. I inquired of others and found 
that a few of the fellows had keeled over in the 
sun shortly after taking the serum. One of the 
men told me that he had had typhoid twice and 
that for a week following the inoculation he had 
all the S3rmptoms of a mild form of typhoid. But 
most of the men seemed unaffected by it, and there 
wasn't a single case of any serious trouble result- 
ing therefrom. Still I never saw an^^body running 
to beat the other fellow to an inoculation. One 
afternoon and evening I couldn't find my orderly 
anywhere and there were a number of people in- 
quiring for him. The next morning he showed up 
and I asked where he had been: ''I was hiding 
from the doctors, but they caught me. I was due 
the third installment on my inoculation. ' ' 

Drilling was never relaxed. Morning and after- 
noon the men were kept to the task of squad, pla- 
toon and company drill. It may seem that the 
connection between ''squads right about" and the 
winning of a victory is rather far-fetched, but the 

139 



With the National Guard on the Border 

advantages of drill lie in acquiring habits of auto- 
matic obedience that will make possible accuracy, 
uniformity'' and celerity of movement under cir- 
cumstances of great nervous excitement. This ex- 
plains why raw recruits cannot as a rule cope 
mth seasoned veterans. Moreover drills today 
are not conducted by word of mouth alone but by 
the notes of a whistle and by gestures. Conse- 
quently repetition upon repetition is required to 
secure satisfactory results in code drilling. Mod- 
ern drill regulations must provide for battles in 
which verbal instructions are out of the question, 
and when the lives of thousands of men and pos- 
sibly the success of their cause may depend upon 
a ready understanding and quick response to mute 
signals. Even at that, the conventional close or- 
der drill is only one of a number of drill problems 
which an army must master. There is the bayonet 
drill, which with all the development of modern 
artiller}^ is still so important that the issues of 
many a conflict will depend upon the expertness 
of the individual soldier mth this weapon. The 
bayonet duel involves all of the niceties of boxing. 
The soldier must know how to parry, lunge, re- 
ti'eat and advance, ever keeping a ]3erfect balance 
of body and control of the bayonet. The soldier's 
life will often depend upon the skill and confidence 
with which he can meet an adversary Avhen steel 
crosses steel. An English sergeant, furloughed 

140 



On the Border 

home to America because of his womids, says that 
at the battle of Loos his squad was assigned the 
task of emptying five houses with the bayonet. 
Just prior to the Balkan wars it was beginning to 
be the opinion that the bayonet was out of date. 
But the remarkable service rendered by that 
weapon in those wars, plus the continual use that 
it has been put to in Europe more recently makes 
bayonet practice a necessary training for every 
soldier. 

Then there is practice in "fire distribution," I 
have no doubt that the average person pictures the 
soldier in battle as shooting at the nearest and 
clearest target that he can see. But this is far 
from the truth. The control and distribution of 
fire is as important to the success of the battle as 
good marksmanship. One of the oldest and most 
successful ruses of warfare is to draw the fire to 
one point so that offensive movements may be 
launched from seemingly innocent, inoffensive and 
unexpected points. Consequently the soldier must 
be taught to restrain his fire and to cover a given 
sector. Amusing things happen in this training 
which is conducted along the same lines as the old 
game of gossip. A company or platoon is spread 
out along the ground in skirmish order. The cap- 
tain or one of the lieutenants sends a message 
down the line, "Tell Sergeant Bro^^m to cease fir- 
ing at twelve o'clock and make as his objective the 

141 



With the National Guard on the Border 

clump of trees at three o'clock." (The location 
of an enemy is indicated by the numbers on the 
face of a watch.) When this message reaches Ser- 
geant Brown it is often so distorted as to be worth- 
less and at times extremely humorous. A problem 
of this character develops alertness on the part of 
each individual soldier and cultivates accuracy of 
memory and expression. In order to make the test 
more valuable a sergeant follows the message 
down the line hearing each man repeat it to his 
neighbor and thus discovering who is the guilty 
party in failing to transmit it correctly. 

One of the most interesting tests of the summer 
was that of "battle practice," in which the com- 
panies competed against each other as to the ac- 
curacy and distribution of their fire. Under the 
supervision of regular army officers targets were 
erected at unkno^vn points. A company was de- 
ployed as skirmishers and advanced by rushes 
against the invisible foe. Suddenly, at a signal 
from the regular army officer, the targets appear. 
The company commander blows his whistle and the 
men throw themselves on the ground and await his 
instructions. The captain announces "twelve 
o'clock" (i.e., "the enemy is straight in front"), 
and turning to the platoon conmianders or first 
and second lieutenants receives their estimate of 
the enemy's distance. One lieutenant may hold up 
seven fingers which means seven hundred yards, 

142 



g 



CD m 
CD S 



^^j P^ 




s 


\^ 1 




\ 


■ti 


' 










s 




to 












r' 






:" \ "^ 


? 


ii l£S£ ■■ 



With the National Guard on the Border 

the other holds up five fingers, the captain imme- 
diately holds up six fingers or the mean distance 
and the sergeants order their squads to set their 
sights at six hundred yards and commence firing. 
The targets are only visible for about a minute 
and a half. When they disappear the company 
again advances by rushes until a new enemy ap- 
pears, and the same thing is repeated. Then the 
number of hits and distribution of fire is an- 
nounced to the credit or disparagement of the com- 
pany. This you will readily see tests the officers, 
non-commissioned officers and men; and next to a 
genuine battle nothing could be more thrilling. 
Every man is ordered to withhold his fire if no tar- 
get is visible, and, believe me, that is the hardest 
thing to do imaginable. I took part ^yith one of 
the companies in the "battle practice," borrow- 
ing a cook's rifle for the purpose. With this duo 
CC personality (Cook and Chaplain) on their side 
it is needless to say that this company won. My 
marksmanship was perfect on the first targets that 
appeared, likewise that of the nine or ten other 
men on the extreme right of the line. How do T 
know? Because we were abiding by that very dif- 
ficult rule of restraining our fire if no enemy was 
in sight and a vista of trees shut the targets en- 
tirely from our view. We lay on our stomachs, 
Ave got on our knees, we stood up and craned our 
necks, yet there was no target; the sensation was 

144 



On the Border 

very similar to having a covey of quail rise up 
all about you, making the air fairly hum with their 
wings and your heart crawl up in your mouth, and 
yet not seeing a single bird. With the next tar- 
gets we were a bit luckier and most of us managed 
to dispose of the fifteen rounds that we were each 
allowed for this contest. But the boy on my left 
was still unable to locate the targets so I borrowed 
ten of his rounds and made a lot of noise if I 
didn't hit anything. But of course it would have 
been very unbecoming in one of my profession, 
with all the good Bible stories about how the An- 
gel of the Lord can direct even the spent arrow to 
the heart of the foe and the host of angels who are 
always hanging over the brow of the hill ready to 
help the Servant of the Lord, to be wanting in 
faith, consequently I affirmed with great assur- 
ance that every time I pulled the trigger one of 
my allies perforated the target two or three times. 
In their excitement some of the boys would plow 
up the earth right in front of them. Still Captain 
Kidgway's compan}?- scored one hundred and 
thirty-four hits in about two or three minutes of 
actual firing time. 

Another most important and interesting exer- 
cise was the maneuvers or sham battles Avithout 
the sham of blank cartridges. Li these exercises 
a battalion Avould operate on the defensive against 
two battalions on the offensive, or a regiment 

145 



With the National Guard on the Border 

against one or two other regiments. This trained 
the officers in the disposition of their men and sup- 
ply trains, the location of the reserves, machine 
guns and dressing stations. It also gave practice 
to the men in scouting, signalling and patrol work. 
I had the pleasure of riding with Lieutenant Luke, 
Chief of Scouts, in one of these maneuvers. From 
the brow of a hill we saw the enemy throwing out 
its patrols. Circling this hill which was really a 
semi-mountain Ave discovered an enemy signal-man 
wig-wagging to their forces. Lieutenant Luke de- 
cided to capture this youngster and so we started 
up the rocky hillside at a gallop. For a few mo- 
ments the boy stood and looked at us, seemingly 
thinking we Avere on his side, then he observed 
that we did not wear a Avhite handkerchief about 
our necks and started to running as fast as his 
legs would carrj^ him. About that time Lieutenant 
Luke's horse slipped on a stone and he Avent doAvn 
in a bed of cactus. My sympathy Avas AAith my fal- 
len comrade ! Tears came to my eyes ! My heart 
throbbed as I thought hoAV many cactus needles 
might be in the seat of his breeches, but duty called 
and I spurred my horse on intercepting the foe 
just as he reached a barbed Avire fence. "Son," 
said I, "Avhat company do you belong to?" "E, 
Sir!" "Then giA^e me those flags and beat it for 
home." This Avas great fun. Luke and myself 
completely circled the enemy, haA^ng a dozen nar- 

146 



Ow the Border 

row escapes and arriving back at camp mth a 
thirst that made a bottle of Coca-Cola look like a 
spring of water in a dry and thirsty land. Bnt 
there is always someone who wants to take the 
joy out of life, and this Major Clinnin in command 
of the other side proceeded to do, telling us that 
our escapade was pulled off within five hundred 
yards of his main column, and that if he had had 
some ball cartridges our final resting place would 
have been Hill 13, Leon Springs Military Reser- 
vation, and that my epitaph would read, "Here 
lies a fool chaplain who didn't have sense enough 
to stay in the rear." Inasmuch as the Major is 
the best rifle shot in the state of Illinois I have no 
doubt that he was right about it. 

At Leon Springs Military Reservation the rook- 
ies were given their first opportunity to use the 
Springfield rifle. This reservation consisting of 
thousands of acres of land is splendidly adapted 
by nature and thoroughly equipped by the govern- 
ment for every military purpose. No better place 
could be found to practice the game of war. Ex- 
cellent military maps of the reservation are avail- 
able for maneuvers, while the reservation em- 
braces a variet}^ of problems through having semi- 
mountains, hills, plains and woodland, the only 
obstacle that it is short of is a river. Crossing a 
river in the face of an enemy is just about the 
greatest problem that an army ever faces. The 

147 



With the National Guard on the Border 

whole history of warfare, ancient and modern, 
shows the necessity of mastering this problem. 
Except for this defect I believe that the Leon 
Springs Reservation conld not be surpassed any- 
where. It was on its rifle ranges that our rookies 
received their first practice with the Springfield 
rifle and new automatic Colt pistol. From the 
break of day to sun-down the rattle of rifles never 
ceased. The only interruption to this continual 
"pop, pop, ]3op" was the occasional hum of a ma- 
chine gun as it tore the heart out of a bull's e^^e. 
The destructive possibilities of a machine gun as 
compared to that of a rifle is like an old time 
butcher's shop Avhere they killed an animal once 
a week and the modern packing jolaiit where they 
literally mow them do"\\ai. When experience has 
taught the world how deadly are its possibilities, 
it is surprising how few machine guns our army 
possesses. Until the beginning of the summer 
there were only two machine guns to each 
regiment. Our two guns had been at the 
Rock Island Arsenal for a year awaiting a 
few repairs, and the government would not 
issue us others until these Avere sent to us. So 
it haiDpened that we were on the border about a 
month before we had any machine guns at all. 
Then Captain Melville was unable to find a reg- 
ular army officer in San Antonio who could assist 
him with any information or help solve any of the 

148 



With the National Guard on the Border 

problems" connected with the nse or structure of 
these guns. The best advice that he could get from 
any source emanated from an ex-corporal of the 
United States army, and remember San Antonio 
was at that time the heart and the brain of the 
whole Army. 

Thus far I have mentioned the things that were 
done to give the men the training, the attitude of 
mind and the experience which would create Avithin 
them individually and as an organization the mo- 
rale of soldiers. But no matter how skillful a man 
may be at goose-stepping, no matter how nuich 
aplomb he may show at dress-parade and in the 
manual of arms, no matter whether he can outshoot 
the traditional Robin Hood, he may be a Avorthless 
sour-belly of a soldier. If he is physically weak, 
shiftless, lazy, selfish, or a moral leper, he is a det- 
riment to any military organization. It isn't the 
fellow who can wear his uniform jauntily after it 
has been washed, starched and laundered that 
proves he is a soldier, but the man who can wash 
his OA\m uniform and underclothing, shine his own 
shoes, keep his rifle and equipment spotless and 
with it all conduct himself as a gentleman that 
makes you feel that here is a real soldier. The 
ph^^sical hardening of a soldier is not a day's nor 
a Aveek's job. It takes months to train a soldier 
adequately. It is only necessary to glance at the 
table of contents of one of the books that a non- 
150 



On the Border 

commissioned officer loaned to nle to see what com- 
pass the military field possesses, and to under- 
stand the number and variety of subjects concern- 
ing which even the least officer must have some 
idea. Taking the Manual of Military Training by 
Captain Moss, U.S.A., the subjects treated are as 
follows : Infantry Drill Regulations, Manual of the 
Bayonet, Manual of Physical Training, Manual of 
Interior Guard Duty, Signalling, Small Arms Fir- 
ing Manual, The Government and Administration 
of a Company, Discipline, General Principles of 
Company Training and Instructions, General Com- 
mon Sense Principles of Applied Minor Tactics, 
General Plan of Instruction in Map Problems for 
Non-Commissioned Officers and Privates, Instruc- 
tion in Delivering Messages, The Service of Infor- 
mation, The Service of Security, Map Reading, 
Military Sketching, Loading Wagons, Marches, 
Care of the Health and First Aid to the Sick and 
Wounded, Military Courtesy, Military Deportment 
and Appearance, Personal Cleanliness and Care 
of Clothing and Other Equipment, Care and Pres- 
ervation of Shoes, Forms of Speech, Delivery of 
Messages, The Care, Description and Management 
of the Rifle, The Company in Attack, The Com- 
pany in Defence, The Company on Outpost, The 
Company in Scouting, Night Operations, The Field 
Orders of Enlisted Men, Intrenchments, Obstacles, 

151 



With the National Guard on the Border 

Field Firing, Camping, and finally, Individual 
Cooking, 

This training of the men commences immedi- 
ately after roll-call in the morning. Before break- 
fast the men are given about fifteen minutes of 
brisk calisthenic exercises. As soon as breakfast 
is over they "police" the camp, picking up all 
trash, even to burnt matches and cigarette 
"butts." This trash is thrown on the incinerators 
— all except the cigar "butts." I have heard the 
boys as they were policing around the officers ' quar- 
ters remark, "Ugh! they were certainly smoking 
them close that time." Immediately following this 
cleaning of the camp the regiment starts on its 
morning hike of from one and a half to two hours. 
These hikes were usually taken in heavy marching 
order, which means that the men carried their 
packs as well as rifles, bayonets, pistols, and other 
equipment. We usually started on these hikes at 
seven o'clock, by which time the Texas sun was 
about as hot as it is in Illinois at ten o 'clock. We 
usually returned at nine o'clock, by which time it 
was just as hot as Illinois ever saw at noon. There 
wasn't a dry stitch of clothing on anybody mth 
the exception of Colonel Sanborn, who only drinks 
three glasses of Avater a day and couldn't sweat 
if he wanted to. The bo^^s were now given a few 
minutes to rest and change their clothing. At ten 
o'clock they faced the purgatorial rays of old Sol 

152 



On the Border 

once more and drilled until eleven forty-five. At 
about two o'clock the drilling was resumed and 
lasted until four-thirty or five. Considering that 
the boys had to do all their washing and cleaning 
of equipment on the side, one can readily see that 
they had no time to waste. 

After almost a month of this hardening process, 
we were called upon to make our first long hike to' 
Leon Springs, twenty-five miles from San Antonio. 
We were allowed two days in which to make this 
trip. The day on which we started was the most 
oppressive of the summer. The distance of the 
first day's hike was only about twelve miles from 
our camp or ten miles from the city, but what 
miles they were. The journey which Bunyan de- 
scribes Christian as taking in "Pilgrim's Prog- 
ress" was an infantile thing compared with the 
hike that thirty-five hundred Illinois boys made 
on that memorable day. Only one month from the 
balmy breezes of Lake Michigan, from office-desks 
and in-door occupations to a half -day's march be- 
neath a purgatorial sun, that may not have burned 
any sins away but did destroy many a pleasant 
illusion about the easy, adventurous and romantic 
life of a soldier. Any rookie who could have per- 
formed the miracle of having his enlistment ex- 
pire on that day would have needed more than 
moral 'suasion to make him re-enlist. Our regi- 
ment alone had more than two hundred and fifty 

153 




h 



On the Border 

men to fall out of ranks on this first day's hike. 
The ambulances were crowded and every clump 
of bushes for the last few miles of the hike had a 
' ' capacity house ; " in some cases entire squads 
dropped out at the same time. Panting and ex- 
hausted soldiers were lying face up to the sun, not 
having the strength to roll over and make them- 
selves more comfortable. Time and again some of 
us would stop just long enough to put their packs 
under their heads and leave them for the care of 
the medical corps. In one case I was sure a boy 
was at death's door, so I mounted my little horse, 
that had been issued to me the day before by a 
thoughtful government, Avas barefoot, and limped 
like a peg-leg man, had already taken one fall 
with me that day, breaking my glasses and wrench- 
ing my back, and digging the spurs into his hide 
I went for the surgeon. He hurried back toward 
the rear and in a few minutes came back with the 
ivrong man, who was as white as a sheet and vir- 
tually out of his head. So again I went for an- 
other surgeon, who carelessly asked me: "How is 
your dying man acting?" "Why he seems to be 
in terrible agony with his stomach and the boys 
are having a task of it holding him." "0 well, 
that isn't the way a dead man acts, he'll come out 
all right, he's just got the cramps from drinking 
too much water," and this good Samaritan went 
on smoking his cigar. I tell you honestly a rout in 

155 



With the National Guard on the Border 

battle could not have been more depressing on the 
spirits of those who are not accustomed to suffer- 
ing. What lessons can we gather from the fearful 
experiences of that march! In the first place, how 
fit was our regiment after a month's training and 
daily short hikes for real service amid the alkali 
plains and deserts of Mexico and beneath even a 
fiercer sun than that of Texas! It was certainly 
the finest proof that no group of civilians would be 
worth a tinker's dam in a real emergency. Kitch- 
ener's three months of training for the civilian 
volunteer army of England was the very least 
time in which the soft and easy going civilian could 
be made into a soldier. 

But with all the distressing circumstances and 
without seeking to minimize one iota the abom- 
inable showing of the First Illinois Brigade on its 
initial hike, yet nevertheless it caused much un- 
necessary newspaper publicity and taught some 
salutary lessons to every officer and man connected 
with the Brigade. Just prior to the last hour of 
the hike, a newspaper correspondent for the Chi- 
cago Tribune and their - motion picture operator 
requested Colonel Sanborn to halt the advance 
guard and allow the regiment to close up so that 
the latter might take some pictures of the organ- 
ization. This the colonel refused to do without 
orders from the Brigade commander, and he was 
a bit impatient with them for making such a re- 

156 



On the Border 

quest. Who could blame him? Shall an army on 
the march reorganize itself to suit the whim of a 
correspondent? But shortly after this the regi- 
ment began to fall by the way-side and the cor- 
respondent saw his opportunity to get back at 
somebody. The report which he sent to his paper 
was eminently successful. His article and the ed- 




United States ambulance leiideriug liist aid to wuundt'd soldiers. 
Also the Hotel de Hike. 



itorial which it elicited criticized everybody con- 
cerned as being bone-headed ; the regular army of- 
ficers for setting such a task for green troops ; the 
officers of our regiment for being overly ambitious 
to make a record and consequently overdoing 
things ; the men for being so dandy and soft that 
they were unable to stand up under the strain of 
so pusillanimous a hike ; and finally they expressed 

157 



With the National Guard on the Border 

a very unfavorable opinion regarding the climate 
of San Antonio. This article succeeded beautifully 
in making everybody sore ; (len. Funston and the 
regular army officers were mad, the people and 
press of San Antonio fairly raved that their cli- 
mate should be so misrepresented (for San An- 
tonio is a city that lives not by the sweat of its 
brow, but by sweating the tourist, and I heard 
one reputable citizen say that he had no doubt that 
this adverse publicity cost the city one hundred 
thousand dollars), and the First Illinois Brigade 
had a special summary court before which this 
correspondent Avas called to answer for his libel- 
ous statements. It is therefore not to be wondered 
at that when our regiment was ordered home and 
this correspondent went to sleep in the smoker 
from the influence of John Barle^'^corn that he 
was allowed to sleep it off while the most de- 
sirable berths were distributed without quite so 
nmch care to honor the representative of the 
"World's Greatest NcAvspaper." It may not be 
best to put in all these little personal things about 
our experiences on the Border but I am writing 
this book not as an essay on the things beautiful 
but as a true narrative of the inner life and sig- 
nificance of our Border experiences, — and even in 
times of war the personal equation is a tremendous 
factor; as for example when Lincoln appointed a 
general not because of his ability but because he 

158 



On the Border 

had such a good German name that it would have 
an excellent influence on the x^eople of Germanic 
extraction in winnine- him votes and the Cause he 




-Copyright, Underwood and Underwood. 



United States troops watching Mexican peons attempt to replace 
an American-built bridge over the Santa Maria Eiver. 

represented their largest and most loyal support. 

As a matter of fact the Illinois troops did make 

a rotten showing on this hike, but instead of the 

unfavorable criticism of everyone involved the 

159 



With the National Guard on the Border 

newspaper men might just as easily have given 
the real reasons for the same Avithout hurting any- 
one. In the first place this, our initial hike, fell 
upon the hottest day of the summer, there wasn't 
a cloud to temper the sun's rays; the first two 
hours of the hike were over paved streets which 
are twice as hard to march upon as a dirt road; 
the majority of the men had never had a similar 
experience and were wanting in a knowledge of 
how to conserve their strength and keep up the 
spirit of their units ; and last, in spite of the pre- 
cautions of their officers, the men drank their water 
in the early stages of the march. Then when some 
of the men became tired they dropped out to rest, 
and their example became contagious ; at least two 
hundred of the two hundred and fifty acted from 
suggestion and not because of exhaustion. In 
other words, on that first day they lacked pride in 
sticking to the end, a thing which ever after that 
they had, and which supported them to stand any 
hardship rather than bring disgrace upon their 
organization. Moreover on that first day the offi- 
cers were so considerate of the men that discipline 
w^as relaxed and they lost control of their units. 
But the lessons of this hike sufficed for the entire 
summer, and thereafter on every hike the boys 
hoarded their water, conserved their strength, as- 
sisted the felloAv who was about to fall out by add- 
ing his rifle and equipment to their loads and kept 

160 



On the Border 

up their spirits by songs and humorous chaffing 
of each other. The officers of companies and bat- 
talions prided themselves on bringing their com- 
mands into camp without the loss of a single man. 
In order to do this the majors very often walked 
the entire distance as an example to the men and 
rather than have a soldier go to the ambulance 
they would put him on their horses for a while 
until he could return to his command. In the same 
spirit the Colonel walked the entire distance of 
one march, but the men preferred for him to ride 
as he then set his horse's pace to that of the men 
while when he walked his long legs covered the 
ground too fast for them. These hikes, which 
gradually lengthened to seventeen miles, were not 
near so trying after three months on the Border. 
After our last march of seventeen miles, with only 
twelve miles between us and San Antonio, a num- 
ber of the boys felt so good that they expressed a 
desire to finish the whole trip in one day; and it 
is my conviction that we could have done this with- 
out losing any considerable number of men, for 
by this time they were as hard as rocks and their 
spirit of stick-to-it-ive-ness had grown in propor- 
tion. 

This suggests one blessing which our stay on the 
Border brought to the men which thej will never 
be able thoroughly to appreciate, and that was the 
blessing of health through outdoor exercise. Men 

161 



With the National Guard on the Border 

who went to Texas with bay-windows and flabby 
muscles, whose life in the city consisted in a great 
deal of eating and very little exercise, said re- 
peatedly in my presence: "This summer is going 
to add ten years to the lives of many of us." 
Those hikes were the things that did it. Some of 
the corpulent fellows, in spite of Pearl Beer (San 
Antonio 's favorite ! ) , reduced so much that before 
the summer was over their form-fitting uniforms 
looked like gunny-sacks hung over gate-posts. 
Since I have referred to drinking in a joking way, 
let me say that the temperance spirit in the First 
Infantry was splendid. Neither was it clue to any 
influence of religion but to a strong conviction that 
liquor destroys a man's efficiency. Once or twice 
the devotees of ' ' Pearl ' ' tried to get me into an 
argument on the value of beer but it was never nec- 
essary for me to argue with them for there was al- 
ways some one else present who emphatically af- 
firmed that it was harmful, and in such decorative 
language that anything that the Chaplain might say 
would have seemed stale. The tojo-sergeant in the 
Headquarters' Company was reduced to the ranks 
for buying beer right after we had reached a tem- 
porary camp. From Colonel Sanborn straight 
til rough our organization, temperance of life and 
habit was the rule. I would not affirm that our or- 
ganization was any more religious than any other, 
probably not, but it was officered by men whose 

162 



On the Border 

example and precept taught the dangers of intem- 
perance and impurity. One of the officers told me 
of the only time that he had ever gotten drunk. 
'*It was in Denver," he said; 'Sve were leaving 
the city after that great reception the National 
Guard of Colorado had given us, and I had too 
much whiskey in me. I was having a high old time 
of it in the officers ' coach when the Colonel re- 
marked that there was too much noise going on in 
the car, whereupon I got out of the seat and stand- 
ing in the aisle I looked at him and said, 'Funny 
face. ' He never paid any attention to it then, but 
the next morning he called me to him and asked 
if he could afford to place confidence in a company 
commander who would get drunk? Whether in 
an emergency it would he safe to trust such a man 
with a command! I told him 'Certainly not' and 
from that day to this I haven't touched a thing 
stronger than beer, and then only in reasonable 
quantities." With a regimental commander who 
can hit a nail on the head like that is it any won- 
der that the officers of the First Illinois hew to 
the line of temperance? 

But this is not a book on ethics or religion, and 
I shall diverge from the subject of hikes just long 
enough to say that our boys had an interest in a 
religion of life and of character that was very 
pleasing. Usually the entire regiment attended 
religious services, with a few visitors from the 

163 



With the National Guard on the Border 

Second and Seventh Regiments as well. The 
boys Avere an inspiration, their attentive and ap- 
preciative listening made preaching to them one 
of the greatest joys that I have ever known. I 
tried to give messages that were as applicable to 
the thought life of Catholics and Jews as to Prot- 
estants, and that I was at least successful in this 
is proven by the fact that a number of the boys 
thought that I was a Jewish Rabbi. A Protestant 
church, a Catholic name and a Jewish nose are 
good assets for an army chaplain. 

The Young Men's Christian Association did a 
splendid work on the Border. Except for the vari- 
ety of religion that a gaunt, pale-faced, hungry- 
looking seminar}^ student passed out, the)" accom- 
plished much good for our Brigade; and I am 
sure they did the same all along the Border. A 
soldier's life is at best one of hardship and lone- 
liness. It is work from morning to night, with 
none of the comforts or relaxations of home. Tlie 
Y. M. C. A. is the only agency that systematically 
and efficiently seeks to remed}^ the short-comings 
of camp life. It provides a place for recreation; 
where magazines, phonograph, stationery and 
ta])les are waiting for the boys. In the evening 
and at other times when off duty, they can find 
here a place to write their letters home, and be in 
the company and atmosphere of the finest fellows. 
If it Avere not for the Y. M. C. A., the boys would 

164 



o 




With the National Guard on the Border 

have nothing to do in the evenings that could pos- 
sibly be considered constructively helpful. Idle- 
ness in the evenings, ''all dressed up with no place 
to go, ' ' would be a menace to the moral life of the 
men were it not for the Young Men's Christian 
Association. The Knights of Columbus also estab- 
lished Catholic reading rooms at many places on 
the Border. 

Returning now to the hikes, there was not a 
single injury resulting from them. This was due 
not to the v^dsdom of the men but to the disci]3line 
of the officers and the precautionary measures of 
the medical corps, who had to take the place of 
papa and mamma and maiden-aunt to a lot of indis- 
creet 3^oungsters who would like to celebrate after 
one of these long marches with a half dozen ice- 
cream cones, a slice or two of Avatermelon, three 
or four soda-pops, and top it all off with a few 
beers. To begin with no venders of foodstuffs 
were ever allowed in the camp and when on the 
march the ice-cream wagons came confidently forth 
to sell their cones to over-heated soldiers, guards 
were placed over them with instructions that no one 
should be allowed to buy ice-cream, likewise with 
saloons a provost guard was placed at every en- 
trance with instructions that no soldier should be al- 
lowed to buy a drink. As soon as Ave reached a tem- 
porary camping place details were selected to dig 
latrines and a guard stationed all about the camp 

166 



On the Border 

to see that no one defecated elsewhere. To vio- 
late this rule was one of the gravest offences 
against our Army Ten Commandments. Para- 
phrasing the Twentieth Chapter of Exodus these 
commandments read as follows: 

I am thy Colonel who brought thee out of Illinois into a land 
of jiggers. 

1. Thou shalt have no other Colonels before me. 

2. Thou shalt not take unto thee any congressman nor any like- 
ness of a politician that may live in Chicago, tSpringfield or Wash- 
ington; thou shalt not bow down th^/self to them nor serve them, 
for I thy Colonel am a jealous Colonel visiting the iniquities of 
these politicians upon you unto the second and third years of 
your enlistment, but showing mercy unto a Diousand men who love 
me and keep my commandments. 

3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Colonel in vain, for the 
Colonel will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 

4. Eemember thy superior officer to treat him respectfully. All 
those below thee have I given unto thee to kick and cuss and cuff, 
but thy superior officer is unto thee as thy Colonel's representa- 
tive; him thou shalt not kick, thou, nor thy sergeant, nor thy cor- 
poral, nor thy high-private, nor thy rookie that is -ndthin thy camp ; 
all that are beneath thee have I given unto thee to do unto them 
as thou seest fit, but thy superior officer thou shalt reverence and 
obey. 

5. Honor thy Colonel and thy Lieut.-Colonel that thy days may 
be short in the land of scorpions which Woodrow Wilson thy Presi- 
dent has given unto thee. 

6. Thou shalt not kill jack-rabbits — with Springfield rifles or 
Colt automatics — near the Camp. 

7. Thou shalt not commit adultery, else when disease lays hold 
upon thee thy pay shall be docked, the time of thine illness added 

167 



With the National Guard on the Border 

to thine enlistment period, and such other punishment meted out 
to thee as shall seem wise in the eyes of a summary court. 

8. Thou shalt not steal from Uncle Sam, neither shalt thou sell 
thy fellow's blanket for a glass of beer. 

9. Thou shalt not bear false witness before a summary court. 

10. Thou shalt not covet another's tent, nor his cook, nor his 
sweetheart, nor his horse, nor his mule, nor anything that is an- 
other 's. 

In breaking a camp every company is required 
to police its quarters, after which one company is 
detailed to remain behind and further police the 
entire camp site. This company gathers stray 
bits of paper and refuse of any sort that may 
have been overlooked, fills trenches and latrines, 
buries tin cans, and in fact does everj^thing to 
make the camp wholesome as an innnediate site 
for some other regiment. This care of the camp 
shows the character of an organization better than 
almost anything else possibly could. I have seen 
our regiment leave its camp looking like a freshly 
cleaned parlor floor while that of an adjoining 
regiment resembled the back-alley of a tenement 
district. The importance of this care of the camp 
site on taking a regimental leave is shown by the 
following experience of our Brigade. We made 
a hike to New Braunsfeld, Texas, about three 
weeks after another brigade had departed. About 
a Aveek before Ave reached New Braunsfeld tlie reg- 
ular ariu}^ officers inspected the camp grounds and 

168 



On the Border 

found a million flies waiting to receive us. They 
used hundreds of gallons of oil in their effort to 
destroy these pests and make our camp whole- 
some. But in spite of every effort on their part 
we found thousands of these pestiferous little 
birds hovering about to share our meals and scat- 
ter disease. To those people who may regard the 
fly as a more or less harmless little creature I 
must recall the fact that during the Spanish- 







Company inspection. 

American War, which did not last any longer than 
our sta^^ on the Border, concentration camps Avere 
pest-holes of disease while under the new sanitary 
regulations there was virtually no sickness in any 
of the camps and the general health of the men 
was probably better than it would have been at 
home. 

169 



With the National Guard on the Border 

Another feature of the hikes that marks a step 
of scientific progress which may at first seem lu- 
dicrous, but on consideration will commend itself 
to every thoughtful person, was the ''foot inspec- 
tion" which immediately^ folloAved our arrival at a 
new camp. Every soldier in the regiment was 
required to take off his shoes and socks and sub- 
mit to an examination of his feet by his company 
officers and the regimental surgeons. In an infan- 




Inspecting Company A, Illinois Signal Corps. 



try regiment foot trouble is a serious thing, and 
under some circumstances (as for example a fallen 
arch) may lead as quickly to a discharge from the 
service as though the misfortune Avas that of a 
weak heart. It follows then that exceptional care 
must be taken of the feet; first in the choice of 

170 



On the Border 

shoes, in wearing socks without holes, in the reg- 
ular bathing of the feet, and in the inspection and 
treatment of the feet after a hike to prevent blis- 
ters from becoming infected through neglect or 
mistreatment. 

The hike tries a soldier's character as much if 
not more than anything else in army life. It is 
the acid test that proves a man's qualities. It 
gives the soldier a chance to be selfish, crooked, 
deceitful and rebellious. No matter how long the 
hike may be or how convenient water is to the line 
of march, each soldier is allowed only one canteen 
of water and this he must fill the night before so 
as not to delay the march. This regulation was 
perhaps the hardest point of discipline that the 
officers were called upon to enforce. The reason- 
ableness of the regulation many of the soldiers 
either would not or could not see, and every sub- 
terfuge was used to evade the officers and violate 
this regulation. The selfish soldier will drink all 
of his water in the early stages of the march and 
then beg another fellow who has conserved his 
supply to divide with him. The tricky soldier will 
drink his early in the march and then trust that he 
can sneak out of the line and refill his canteen 
without being seen. The crook will feign sickness 
so that he can get a ride in the ambulance or im- 
pose his rifle and equipment upon others who are 
equally tired but more courageous. The rebel- 

17X 



With the National Guard on the Border 

lious soldier will openly seek to violate a rule 
which he knows his officers are in duty and honor 
bound to enforce. I have seen captains relieved 
of their commands because of the deceit or rebel- 
liousness of their men. As one of the majors vol- 
unteered to me after relieving an officer of his 
command, "It isn't that the Captain has been 
guilty of any misconduct but I forestall the Colo- 
nel's criticism of me and give the men an object 
lesson which will excuse their company conunand- 
ers in dealing severely Avith those who are guilty 
of breaches of discipline." 

Without thoroughly understanding this problem 
the layman would probably feel that the soldier 
Avas being imposed upon Avhen forced to march 
past house after house where his canteen might 
be refilled, especially when the boys actually feel 
that they are dying of thirst. Why such strict- 
ness anyway? Because experience teaches that 
long marches can be made better with little rather 
than Avith much Avater. Because the Avater may 
not be Avholesome, it has not been analyzed and in 
an enemy country miglit be poisoned and most im- 
portant of all Ave Avere in training for serAdce in 
Mexico. If the training Avas to be effectiA^e Ave 
must adapt ourselves to similar conditions Avhile 
at home. The training men get must always be 
based on adverse conditions if it is to be of any 
value to them when meeting a foe. Undoubtedly 

172 



On the Border 

officers sometimes make grave mistakes but they 
are always striving to render the greatest amount 
of good to the greatest nmnber of men in ways 
that have been approved after a period of trial 
and error which extends back to the dawn of 
history. 



173 



CHAPTER VIII 

HANDICAPS OF THE NATIONAL GUARD 

/^NE of the most serious drawbacks to an ade- 
^^ quate and efficient National Guard is the op- 
position of labor unions. Strange as it may seem 
to those whose lives have been given to the unself- 
ish labor of preparing themselves and others to 
defend our government in times of emergency, yet 
every guardsman in the United States has had to 
face this problem time and again. The men in the 
ranks have had to defend themselves against the 
slurring remarks that have been cast at them as 
the minions of capital. The officers, in their ef- 
forts to increase the Guard, have either felt the 
cold and silent opposition of the moderate unionist, 
which made their efforts very difficult, or the 
outspoken and bitter antagonism of radicals, 
which made their efforts fruitless. The reasoning 
of the laboring class has seemed to be as follows : 
"These soldiers are our enemies, for, when we 
strike for higher wages or shorter hours, the}^ are 
always called to frustrate our efforts and protect 
the capitalist." 

As a friend of the laboring classes who desires 
for them the best that can be had in hours, wages 

174 



With tJie National Guard on the Border 

and conditions, I wish to register a strong protest 
against this policy which so seriously weakens our 
government's military strength. I am not' so badly 
informed concerning the history of unionism and 
its splendid efforts to better conditions for the 
laboring man as to be ignorant of the fact that 
there have been times when state executives have 
used the National Guard to protect the capitalist 
while he has used ''scab" labor to defeat their 
legitimate demands; and I am of the opinion that 
this is a great crime against the laboring man. His 
livelihood, his home, his wife and his children de- 
serve as much consideration as invested capital. 
But the solution of this injustice is not in striking 
at the National Guard but through the revision 
of our state and federal laws. Under our pres- 
ent legal system, property rights are most 
sacred, and whenever any man finds himself 
or the local authorities unable to protect these 
rights, he has the privilege of calling upon the 
state government to protect his interests with the 
militia. The laboring man has this right as well 
as the capitalist, but our laws have never yet 
sufficiently expressed the needs of a new social 
order in Avhich strikes are only an outward man- 
ifestation and in which thousands of lives are in- 
volved as w^ell as property rights. It is my opin- 
ion that we need a federal law, providing that 
whenever a strike situation becomes so menacing 

176 



Handicaps of the National Guard 

as to demand the presence of the National Guard 
for the protection of property, that the instant 
such troops arrive upon the scene, the solution of 
the differences shall be taken out of the hands of 
the strikers and capitalists and settled by a fed- 
eral board of arbitration. This would protect the 
capitalists against the depredations of strikers 
and the strikers against the selfish use of the Na- 
tional Guard. 

But until such legislation, the union man should 
revise his thinking. Does he object to living in a 
state or nation where property rights are held sa- 
cred, is he averse to owning property himself, does 
he not strive with all his might to better his finan- 
cial condition, so that he may himself make advan- 
tageous investments in a home, business or other- 
wise? Can he then honestly, as an American cit- 
izen, begrudge others the protection of property 
rights which he would be quick to demand for 
himself? 

Has the union man ever honestly faced this 
problem that the National Guard is never called 
out except where men seek to abrogate the rights 
of the law and destroy property or human life, 
and where the disturbances have become so riot- 
ous and dangerous to the public peace that neither 
the local police force nor the sheriff and his dep- 
uties are able to cope with the situation? No 
peaceful citizen, and most union men are of this 

177 



Handicaps of the National Guard 

class, has ever had a soldier of the National Guard 
face him with a loaded rifle or a fixed bayonet. 

Moreover, the unions have a sadly distorted con- 
ception of the motives and functions of National 
Guardsmen. To them these soldiers are simply 
the minions of wealth, the enemies of labor. 
This is all wrong. The National Guard is the 
lineal descendant of the Minute Men of rev- 
olutionary fame, who in times of peace prepared 
for war. They elected their officers, gathered their 
arms and ammunition, and made a military pro- 
gram. That is ninety-nine per cent of what the 
National Guard is doing all through the year. Un- 
til this present year, there was no government 
compensation for guardsmen, either oihcers or 
men, except for one week in the year during the 
encampment. There are hundreds and thousands 
of patriots who for ten, twenty and thirty years 
have devoted from one to three nights a week to 
the service of our government without one cent of 
compensation and little appreciation. These are 
the men whom our government would have to de- 
pend upon in any emergency. Is it asking too 
much for labor unions to have a somewhat larger 
conscience than their o^^m little group and think in 
terms of our country for a while? 

I know whereof I am writing concerning this 
matter. When pastor of a church in Chicago I 
felt so sure of the value of the Guard to our coun- 

179 



With the National Guard on the Border 

try, as well as to the individual boy or man who 
enlists in its ranks that I went to a number of the 
ministers and boys' classes in their churches, try- 
ing to interest them in enlisting in the First Illi- 
nois Infantry. One class of twenty bo^^s was very 
much interested and told their pastor that they 
thought they would all join the First Infantry, 
but on returning to their homes, their iDarents and 
brothers said to them, "So you'll join the National 
Guard and shoot doAvn your own father and broth- 
ers, will you!" and not a single boy enlisted. One 
minister said to me very frankly, "My people are 
all from the working class and have no use for the 
Guard and neither have I, you can't talk to my 
young men on this subject." 

It may be a hard saying but I feel that such peo- 
ple who have so little appreciation of the sacrifices 
in time and money, Avhich the guardsmen all over 
the United States have made, deserve no protec- 
tion against the ravages of war. 

Upon no single group of people can we so much 
lay the blame for the paucity- in numbers and de- 
ficiency in equipment of the National Guard at 
the beginning of the summer of 1916 as upon the 
labor unions. In every city and state of the union 
their opposition had discouraged enlistment and 
depleted the regiments to such an extent that but 
feAV regiments had the minimum number of men 
required by the federal government before such 

180 



Handicaps of the National Guard 

organizations could be mnstered into the federal 
service. Not only so, but the opposition of labor 
organizations has confined the appropriation of 
funds to the state militia to A\dthin such narrow 
limits as to defeat its thorough equipment and con- 
sequently its best efficiency. 

It may seem to those who are unfamiliar with 
this subject that I am giving an undue emphasis 
to it, but if th(?y had seen and heard of the difficul- 
ties which the labor unions have made for the 
Guard, and if they had witnessed the fruit of this 
unreasonable antagonism as I have done, they 
would realize the importance of a frank and thor- 
ough treatment of this subject. I would not say 
that the laboring man is not a patriot, that he is 
not as willing as any other man to die for the Stars 
and Stripes, but I do affirm most solemnly that he 
has shown an extremely poor sample of patriotism 
in his relationship to the National Guard. 

To be sure he enlisted Avhen it seemed like war 
with Mexico was imminent, but what training or 
experience had he had to fit him for the field ? Thus 
after opposing the Guard from without to its great 
detriment, he responds to the call to arms as a raw 
recruit who must be trained when there is no time 
to train, equipped when there is nothing with 
which to equip him, and disciplined when discipline 
is hardest and patience is least. This unreason- 
able, and I think unjustifiable and unpatriotic prej- 

18X 



With the National Guard on the Border 

iidice, acts as a constant detriment to boys and 
yonng men who would gladly avail themselves of 
the military training, summer outing and real fel- 
lowship of red-blooded men which the National 
Guard offers. There are no doubt a million young- 
men in America who would gladly take advantage 
of the opportunities thus offered were it not for 




Signal corps equipment. 



this prejudice which creates everywhere an atmos- 
phere which varies from cold indifference to bitter 
hostility. The great State of California furnishes 
a striking illustration of this condition. With all 
their fear of the yellow peril and constantly reit- 
erated statements that there are thousands of ex- 
Japanese soldiers living in their State, unionism 
is so strong in California that the National Guard 
is a negligible factor. 

182 



Handicaps of the National Guard 

No matter how efficiently a few men may be 
trained, if in cases of emergency the crowd comes 
in nndisciplined and unprepared, the character of 
the organization will be made by these new re- 
cruits. Consequently the National Guard must 
work with a skeleton organization in times of 
peace because of the unsympathetic attitude of its 




Sixteenth United States Infantry entrenching at Colonia Dublan, 

Mexico. 

own citizens, and be cursed with a lot of untrained 
men in times of emergency because of their spas- 
modic bursts of patriotism; and all this in spite of 
the fact that the one purpose of the Guard is to 
furnish trained men to meet just such emergencies. 
Another cause of weakness in the past that may 
possibly be helped by the new act of Congress is 
the pecunious policy of the states and national 
government toward the Guard. Absolute indiffer- 

183 



With the National Guard on the Border 

ence to the proper housing and equipping of such 
organizations has discouraged many who would 
otherwise have had a great deal of interest. Many 
a young man, who would gladly have joined the 
Guard, has gone to the armory with the purpose of 
enlisting and then changed his mind. Take, for 
example, the city of St. Louis in the rich State of 
Missouri. Its only regiment, the First Infantry 
and the crack regiment of the State, is housed in 
a one story building that were it a barn Avould 
humble the pride of a thoroughbred horse. While 
in Chicago the "Dandy First," while housed el- 
egantly compared with most national guard or- 
ganizations, finds its big four story armory inad- 
equate ; and that armory was built not by the State 
of Illinois but by public subscriptions of patriotic 
citizens. 

The pecuniousness of the states and federal gov- 
ernment has resulted in other drawbacks. In the 
past no officer or man received one cent of com- 
pensation for his services, except during the week 
of the summer encampment; with what result? 
The privates must come to the armory fifty-two 
nights a year for drill, while the officers must on 
the average give at least two nights a Aveek to the 
duties and responsibilities placed upon them. 
Moreover, the officers are responsible for all of the 
equipment, — rifles, uniforms, etc., in their several 
commands, For the proper care and return of this 

184 



Handicaps of the National Guard 

equipment, they must be bonded ; and they are re- 
quired to provide their own uniforms, side-arms 
and field equipment. I know officers in the National 
Guard who affirm that they have five hundred dol- 
lars tied up in uniforms; and one man of wealth, 
Avho has devoted forty years to service in the 
Guard has estimated that in dollars and cents the 
sacrifice of time alone has cost him fifty thousand 
dollars. There is a reverse side of this which is 
equally interesting and has a direct bearing on the 
efficienc}^ of the Guard. Hundreds of men have 
devoted 3'^ears of service in the ranks and as non- 
commissioned officers who could not aspire to the 
rank of a commissioned officer because of the ex- 
pense involved. I have talked to some of these ex- 
ceptionally fine men, who in every sense were fit- 
ted for promotion and always with the same re- 
sult, "We couldn't stand the financial pace that 
an officer must set to keep his company in good 
shape." 

On the other hand, company commanders have 
confided that while some men had their clubs and 
their golf and their high powered cars for their 
hobbies, they were spending their surplus funds in 
building up their companies, offering prizes and 
giving treats to the men to keep up their interest. 

Possibly the new Chamberlain bill will remedy 
some of this injustice and make service in the Na- 
tional Guard more attractive to worthy and ambi- 

185 



With the National Guard on the Border 

tioiis men who could not in the past make the sac- 
rifices involved in being officers and were not will- 
ing to serve forever in the ranks. Under the new 
bill, officers and men are to receive some compen- 
sation, which, it is hoped, will tend to increase the 
interest of the men and relieve the officers of some 
of the burdens which they have so unselfishly and 
patriotically borne mthout compensation or ade- 
quate appreciation in the past. The degree of com- 
pensation, which national guardsmen are to re- 
ceive in the future, is certainly nothing more than 
justice would dictate, but there are so many strings 
tied to the proposed measure of compensation for 
the Guard that it is questionable whether any Na- 
tional Guard regiment Avill be able to draAv the sal- 
aries provided for in the Hay- Chamberlain Bill, 
and speaking for the Guard everywhere we would 
rather the compensation should be dispensed with 
if only we could see that degree of appreciation and 
co-operation that would increase the size of the 
National Guard to a million well trained, patriotic 
men. 

But these obstacles to an adequate and efficient 
Guard were both knoAvn prior to the summer of 
1916. It remained for our experiences on the Bor- 
der to show other weaknesses never before mani- 
fested. The old conception of the Guard was, that 
as state militiamen, their service was restricted 
to that of the state. In case of war, it was, there- 

186 



With the National Guard on the Border 

fore, necessary for the Guard to re-enlist as volun- 
teers in order to be used without their own state. 
Then there came a modification of the law which 
changed the function of the state militia to that of 
a National Guard. But still the idea Avas that they 
should only be used in the territory of the United 
States. It Avas under this law, or A^^.th this inter- 
pretation of the laAV, that our present National 
Guard entered the service in the summer of 1916. 
But the present Chamberlain bill, which is noAV 
the law regulating the National Guard, aims def- 
initely at making it a reserve force to supplement 
the regular army at home or abroad. This raises 
some delicate problems. 

The men Avho entered the Guard entered Avith 
the purpose of prejjaring for Avar, but it now ap- 
pears that they may be called out at any time and 
used as a police force to keep a bunch of bandits 
on the other side of the international fence. More- 
OA^er, it appears further that the guardsman has 
no choice in the matter of taking the federal oath 
and being mustered into its service. This legal 
problem I must leave nnansAA^ered, but suffice it to 
say that every day and night and hour of the re- 
cent period of service on the Border, the guard- 
house laAvyer (as the felloAv Avho talks about his 
legal rights in the army is called) Avas arguing the 
question, "What right did they have to make ns 

188 



Handicaps of the National Guard 

assume a new obligation by duress, force of arms 
and the threat of court-martial?" 

The average soldier, who enlists in the regular 
army with the idea of living on fifteen dollars a 
month, knows what he is doing, usually hasn't a 
remunerative business or any dependents, and so 
in getting food, clothing, quarters and fifty cents 
spending money a day is not making a bad bar- 
gain, while the average guardsman is employed, 
has a remunerative position and fifty times out of 
a hundred he is either married or on the verge of 
getting married. 

The situation which arose when one hundred 
thousand guardsmen were called from their homes 
and businesses was little less than tragic. A few 
of these, but relatively very few, who worked for 
the great corporations were well cared for. These 
corporations, such as the Bell Telephone Com- 
pany ; Sears, Eoebuck ; Marshall Field, and the big 
packing plants, either continued to pay the men's 
salaries in full or the difference between what they 
were getting on the Border and in civil life. These 
corporations, which are so often spoken of as 
heartless, unpatriotic, etc., came across with as 
sublime an example of true patriotism as it is pos- 
sible for the business world to show. What com- 
fort, security and happiness they gave by this 
patriotic service God only knows ; but what misery 
and sorrow they saved innumerable families, those 

189 



With the National Guard on the Border 

of us who read the letters from the stricken homes 
ivhere there ivas noiv no one to 'provide, can testify. 
What a world of trouble this difference between 
the regular army and the National Guard did en- 
gender. No sooner did we reach the mobilization 
camp than wives began to plead with their hus- 
bands to get out of the service and these appeals 
came so i3ersistently as to depress and demoralize 
their husbands until they were half crazed. When, 
as one man put it, "I left my mfe and children 
with two dollars and a half between them and 
hunger" you have the problem epitomized. An- 
other poor fellow came to me ^^ith a letter from 
his wife, which read something like this: ''Dear 
Charlie, I have always loved you devotedly and 
done everything in my power to be a good wife, 
and I have always thought until now that you loved 
us, but since 3'ou can leave us as you are now doing, 
I can not believe that you love us. Where can I 
get the money to pay our rent, to buy our food and 
to get shoes for the little girls. Do you think any- 
one could love his family and leave them in such 
destitution! While you are off on this lark, what 
shall we do?" The poor fellow Avas all broken 
up and cried like a child as he said, "Oh, I was 
just wild for a letter from home and so blue over 
leaving them, I was just crazy to get a cheerful 
lotter from my wife, telling me that she loved me 
and understood that I had to go in response to the 

190 



Handicaps of the National Guard 

call of duty, and then to get this letter, it nearly 
broke my heart." So I said to him, "Let me write 
yonr wife a letter," and he said, "Chaplain, I 
msh you would and please explain to her just how 
I feel, for somehow it doesn't seem that I can write 
myself. " Sol wrote to this heart-broken wife and 
put the problem of patriotism up to her. No 
sooner had I given this letter to the man to read 
and mail than his tent mate came to me and said, 
"I am leaving a sick wife, and we are expecting a 
baby in a few weeks. Can't you write to her and 
brighten her lot a little?" Shortly another came, 
"Chaplain, do you think it possible for a woman 
to die of nervousness? My wife seems to have 
gone completely to pieces and I am afraid she will 
die." So it fell to my lot to help meet this situa- 
tion and I believe that I am safe in affirming that 
the regular army doesn't have this kind of demor- 
alizing xDroblem confronting it. 

Then the situation is only half stated. Where 
is the man who has a business or profession that 
can go away for an indefinite period and not be 
worried about the result? This is the position of 
the guardsman. On the other hand, the regular 
army officer or man has only his daily duties to 
perform. For example, let us compare the medical 
corps of the two services. The medical officer in 
the army enters as a First Lieutenant from an in- 
ternship and a special training course. He draws 

191 




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Handicaps of the National Guard 

a salary of one hnudred and sixty-six dollars from 
the start. After five years, he is promoted to Cap- 
tain with a salary of two hundred dollars, house 
rent, etc., thrown in, and with ten per cent addi- 
tional salary for every five years of service. There 
is nothing startling about his future, he will not die 
rich, but he has absolutely nothing to worry him 
while in the service of the government. But the 
National Guard doctor has probably been working 
for nothing for the first few years of his life and 
now is just at the place where his income is fine, 
when, presto, the government calls him. Every 
month that he is in the government's service means 
that more of his patients go to other doctors for 
treatment; and this same rule is applicable to 
lawyers, dentists, musicians and business men. It 
wouldn't be so bad if these men could know Jiotv 
long they are to be in the government service ; but 
this no one can tell and it is an appalling situation 
in which to be placed. But again let me say if the 
Guard had been called for actual service against an 
enemy, it would all be different ; but this thing of 
walking a dirt road for Uncle Sam while you think 
of the fellow at home who is walking away with 
your business is far from a pleasant thought. As 
one private expressed it in my hearing, "When I 
was a kid, I studied geography and read about how 
Texas was as big as all out doors, but I didn't 

193 



With, the National Guard on the Border 

dream then that when I became a man, I was going 
to have to walk all over it." 

But wives and families, business and profes- 
sions are not the only drawbacks to the efficiency 
and value of the Guard. Political influence never 
takes its hands off of anything that pertains to a 
state. Most guard officers and most regiments are 
deep in politics. The ability to pay political debts 
at a sacrifice of military efficiency is too strong a 
temptation to governors and colonels to be neg- 
lected. The new tests through which the war de- 
partment puts the officers of the Guard should help 
to eliminate this, but there have been too many 
flagrant examples of political wire pulling to de- 
spise, discount or fail to deal frankly with this sub- 
ject. I believe that the First Illinois Infantry is 
as absolutely free of political influence, and as un- 
yielding in its purpose to promote and attain mili- 
tary perfection as any regular army organization 
in America, but this is due to the peerless leader- 
ship of Colonel Sanborn who has no wires to pull 
and won't allow anybody to use him as a tool. The 
ideal in the First Infantry is purely military, but 
not so with many of the organizations. In a cer- 
tain regiment, the Governor's son was taken from 
the ranks and made Captain of a company. If it 
had been the President's son in the First Illinois 
Infantry, he would have come through the various 
ranks as any other man ; and it is a matter of pride 

194 



Handicaps of the National Guard 

with the First Illinois Infantry that there isn't a 
Captain in onr organization that has not seen at 
least ten years of service. 

But to illustrate more definitely how politics 
hindered us while on the Border. Every man who 
wanted to be mustered out of the service began to 
do political wire pulling. One man wrote to General 
Funston, the Secretary of Waf and the President, 
asking for his release, and all of these letters came 
back and were referred to his company com- 
mander, and it may be added that he was duly ad- 
monished not to try this again. Parents and wives 
interceded with congressmen and United States 
senators for the release of their boys, and as good 
politicians they of course did "everything in their 
power to secure the same," which power was usu- 
ally considerably less than enough to accomplish 
anything more than perpetual annoyance to the of- 
ficers and unrest among the men. 

Furthermore, the chameleon-like changes of Con- 
gress with reference to aiding dependent families 
or releasing those who were needed for their sup- 
port caused daily discussions, unrest and dissatis- 
faction. The sense of being used as a political 
pawn for campaign purposes again took root fol- 
lowing the passing of another humiliating chapter 
in our relationship with Mexico. 

After all is said, these two things must stand out 
as clearly deducible from the experiences of the 

195 



Handicaps of the National Guard 

Guard on the Border. First, that there is some- 
thing wrong with the Guard as at present com- 
posed. Either the government must restrict its 
calls upon the Guard to seasons of actual warfare 
when the motive to sacrifice is intensified to such 
a degree that dependents and business may be for- 
gotten or it must limit the membership in the ranks 
to unmarried men. 

Second, it has shown that the American people 
are not patriotic, except by spasms; that many 
business men who are strong on preparedness 
parades will, nevertheless, frighten their absentee 
employees with the threat that unless they return 
by such and such a date their places will be for- 
feited. As a corollary to this, it has been shown 
that many men, swept off their feet in a moment 
of enthusiasm, are really unwilling to sacrifice their 
time and money for the country's good. 

It has also been shown that there are women in 
America whose smallness of view and selfish want 
of patriotism remind me that people can live be- 
neath the Stars and Stripes and yet have no 
country. God knows I admire more the peasant 
women of Europe sunk as they may be beneath the 
iron heel of poverty and adversity but still bracing 
their sons and husbands with courage to fight for 
their native land, than all the money loving, pleas- 
ure-seeking daughters of prideless America. But, 
thank heaven, they were not all that way, those 

197 



With the National Guard on the Border 

wives of the veterans of '98 who thought that they 
were passing beneath the shadow of death for the 
second time, I shall never forget the good cheer 
and noble bearing of those women as they sent their 
husbands away to Avhat they thought was the bat- 
tle front. They had no less love for their husbands 
because they loved their country more. Their eyes 
a,nd faces showed so much feeling that it was a 
sacrilege to look at them in those last moments of 
parting. But, how they carried themselves ! That 
is the point, they carried themselves like those 
heroines of the past whose noble sacrifices placed 
the stars in Old Glory, while their husbands stained 
its stripes with their royal hlood. 

The experiences of the summer showed how lack- 
ing in perspective our nation is. Anxious as so 
many have been to settle the Mexican question ex- 
peditiously^ and mth honor; repeatedly as the 
warning has been given that it takes time to make 
an army and that entering the tropics unseasoned 
and unprepared, would be certain to result in use- 
less sacrifices of men; in fact, Avould be a kind of 
national suicide, nevertheless, the deepest resent- 
ment was felt toward the administration for calling 
on so many men to make the sacrifice of a few 
months in training. 

I disapproved of the present administration's 
policies, and thought its entire program wrong with 
reference to Mexico, yet I cannot see how any one 

198 



Q 




With the National Guard on the Border 

can question the value of mobilizing the Guard. It 
has given more real training to the officers and 
men of the National Guard than twenty years of 
summer encampments could have done. It has 
furnished the opportunity for regular army officers 
to command larger units and to acquaint them- 
selves with the practical problems that are therein 
involved. It has tested the War Department's 
theories of mobilization and undoubtedly keyed up 
the whole military machine. Most important of all, 
it has given a practical demonstration of the value 
or lack of value which the Guard, in its particular 
units or as a whole, possesses. No reasonable per- 
son can question the certainty of these results. 
When to these known assets is added the uncertain 
put probable influence which the mobilization of the 
Guard had upon the Mexican military chieftains 
who style themselves the constitutionalist govern- 
ment b}^ preventing the further assassination of 
American soldiers by the constitutionalists' forces 
and depredations against American property and 
life by Mexican bandits, we must conunend the ad- 
ministration for so belated an action as the mobi- 
lization of the National Guard even if it was just 
before the presidential election. Even if it were 
politics that led to this action, still it Avas good 
politics, and, in view of Lincoln's combination of 
policy and principle, it must be considered meri- 
torious. Two further thoughts deserve treatment 

200 



Handicaps of the National Guard 

in this connection. One of the opinions quite fre- 
quently expressed was to the effect that the mobili- 
zation of the Guard and its long stay on the border 
was instigated by the regular army officers for the 
purpose of so demoralizing the Guard as to lead to 
the wholesale resignation of its officers, and the 
rapid disintegration of the organizations by the 
refusal of the men to re-enlist on the expiration 
of their periods of service, which program would 
first eventuate (so those who held this opinion 
said) in the conviction becoming widespread that 
the Guard was too unstable and unreliable to place 
any confidence in for purposes of national defense 
or for any other practical value to the Government 
in times of stress and strain, and would result in 
the abandonment of the proposed program of the 
government to develop the Guard to a higher de- 
gree of efficiency and consider it as a second line 
of defense. "Conversely," said these camp fire 
critics, "the public will feel disposed as a result 
of the proven deficiencies of the Guard to further 
enlarge the regular army, which will mean more 
rapid promotion to these regular army officers ; and 
it is for this reason that the Guard was called out 
and is being held so long upon the border." 

Not having anything to do, as the Chaplain is 
constantly informed by his brother officers, who re- 
gard him as a sort of appendix, the vestiginal re- 
mains of a once functioning organ whose only func- 

201 



Handicaps of the National Guard 

tion now is to cause periodic spasms of pain once a. 
week, not having an^^thing to do, as aforestated, I 
probably spent more time than any other man on 
the border. General Funston and Captain Fitzhngh 
Lee, excepted, looking np the sources of what 
church people call gossip and the soldiers call 
'4atrine dope." So after due and careful delibera- 
tion and investigation, which stopped for safety 
first reasons just this side of General Funston, I 
am of the opinion that "there's nothing to it." 
The regular army would welcome a National Guard 
of half-a-million men trained to the highest degree 
of perfection, for they know full well that in a real 
crisis the regular army no matter what its size 
could not hope to cope with it alone. Moreover, I 
think that this sentiment of a few guardsmen is by 
no means the opinion of its more thoughtful men. 
That natural feeling of superiority which the pro- 
fessional always feels toward the amateur in any 
trade or vocation sometimes engenders suspicion 
and the reading-in of motives which do not in re- 
ality exist. I believe that the regular army is ex- 
tremely friendly and considerate of the National 
Guard, and as a token of that friendliness, I will 
cite one incident. While at a public gathering in 
San Antonio, a regular army sergeant was heard 
by some officers of the Guard and of the regular 
army abusing and ridiculing the "ram-rod 
militia." A regular army officer at once de- 

203 



With the National Guard on the Border 

manded of him his name, regiment and company 
and told him to report nnder arrest to his com- 
manding officer, saying to the officers with him, 
"He shall lose his chevrons for that." This was 
a rather outspoken expression of friendliness and 
comradeship for the Guard. But nrach more con- 
clusive and satisfactory was the continual courtesy, 
consideration and effort to assist the guardsmen 
which characterized the entire official family in the 
Department of the Southwest. 

The second suggestion which is Avorthy of con- 
sideration, and the outcome of which we will all 
watch with interest, was a statement by Brigadier- 
General Foster of the First Illinois Brigade that 
"Our service on the Mexican Border mil mark the 
death-knell of the National Guard because of its 
interference with business." His deduction was 
based on the observation that ' ' Every day four or 
five men in the brigade complete their period of en- 
listment and relatively none of them are re-enter- 
ing the service. Since we are not receiving any 
fresh recruits, as a matter of pure mathematics 
how long will it take to decimate our organiza- 
tions. ' ' 

Captain James D. Melville has confirmed Gen- 
eral Foster's opinion as follows: "There is no 
doubt that the experiences of the past summer will 
kill the National Guard. Every married, enlisted 
man will get out of the service ; and many officers 

204 



With the National Guard on the Border 

will also resign. The fearful strain upon the of- 
ficers, due to the re-organization of the Guard that 
went into effect with the Hay-Chamberlain bill of 
June 3rd, put such heavy responsibilities upon in- 
experienced men, and resulted in such a flood of un- 
just criticism that I am confident that there will 
be a wholesale resignation among officers of the 
Guard. Prior to June 3rd, there were twelve com- 
panies in a regiment, but this new bill called for 
the organization of three additional companies 
with special ordnance, signal, sanitary and supply 
officers. When we were called into the federal 
service a few days later, no one had mastered the 
problems involved in these changes, and virtually 
every one, colonels and brigadier generals included, 
were at sea as to their duties and the proper method 
of procedure. Take my own company for example : 
prior to the Hay-Chamberlain bill we were only a 
platoon of twenty-one men and two machine guns, 
but by this bill, we were raised to a company of 
fifty-three with four guns. We went to the Border 
without a single gun, for the two that we had were 
in the arsenal undergoing repairs and had been 
kept there for a year. We were on the Border a 
month before our old guns arrived and before we 
were allowed to draw the two new ones. AVlien we 
had our complete equipment, so far as the guns 
were concerned, there wasn 't a regular army officer 
in or near San Antonio who could give me one bit 

206 



Handicaps of the National Guard 

of aid or counsel when I needed information. The 
most help I could get from any one was from an 
ex-corporal of the regular army. Moreover, we 
were taken away from Texas two months before we 
should have been. Given two more months and we 
would have been in good shape; for those who 
stuck after we returned home would have known 
their business. But as it was, our program of 
work while in Texas was not thorough nor com- 
prehensive enough, due, so they tell us, to the short- 
age of regular army officers. It is, therefore, my 
opinion that the Guard is doomed. Take this new 
proposition of paying the officers and men ; I have 
read the government's requirements with refer- 
ence to this and they are too hard, Avith too much 
red tape, for men to comply with who must make 
their living at something else, and I am therefore 
of the opinion that this will lead to the resig- 
nation of many officers, who cannot devote so much 
time to the Guard. ' ' 

Just what the future of the Guard is to be no one 
can tell, but these prophecies pessimistic as they 
are, will serve to give occasion for thought to those 
who have carefully considered the handicaps under 
which the Guard has worked in the past and is to 
work in the future. 



207 



CHAPTER IX 

THE TRAGEDIES OF A BLOODLESS 
CAMPAIGN 

TOURING an exceedingly bnsy three and a half 
^-^ months of border experience, we were often 
overtaken by the joys and sorrows that are com- 
mon to the lot of man. 

Just after we reached Leon Springs, one of the 
boys in the band received word that his sister 
had died. Of course he wanted to go home and I 
was assigned the task of dissuading him from do- 
ing so. ' ' What good would it do ; in all probability 
the funeral would be over before you could arrive. 
There is nothing you can do and would it not be 
better to remember her as the beautiful young 
woman, who bade you such an affectionate farewell 
so short a time agof" In this way we reasoned 
with him until he gave up the idea of asking for 
"a leave of absence." The dear fellows in the 
band planned that they would do something to 
lighten his sorrow. So on Sunday morning a few 
moments before the time set for the funeral serv- 
ice in Chicago, the boys fell into line with their 
instruments and we marched apart from the camp 

208 



The Tragedies of a Bloodless Campaign 

over on the rifle range. There on the six hundred 
yard firing line, while his family was laying the 
body of his sister to rest, we held a beautiful memo- 
rial service. With deep feeling the boys played 
' ' Nearer My God to Thee, " ' ' Just as I am Without 
One Plea," and ''Asleep in Jesus," after which I 
made a brief address on "The Immortality of All 
That is Good and Beautiful." 

On another Sabbath, while we were at Leon 
Springs, I was requested to go to San Antonio mth 
the band and machine gun company of the Second 
Illinois Infantry to conduct the funeral of one of 
their boys who had died at the Base Hospital from 
a fractured skull, resulting from the kick of a mule. 
This was an extremely sad incident. The boy 
was to have been married in a short time, l3ut 
through this unavoidal)le accident his sweetheart 
was destined not even to see his remains, as the 
body was shipped to Arlington Cemetery for in- 
terment. 

Then we lost one of our boys. Sergeant Darrow 
of Company Iv. He was an excellent fellow, well 
liked by everybody. From the Colonel of the regi- 
ment to the youngest rookie in Company K, they 
all knew and liked Darrow. He was stricken with 
apxDendicitis on our way to Leon Springs. Owing 
to the delay in sending an ambulance for him, his 
appendix was ruptured before reaching the Base 
Hospital, and though they operated on him im- 

209 











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■ 

Sergeant Raymond E. Dareoav H 



A splendid fellow, beloved by everybody. He died at the Base 
Hospital in San Antouio and was the only boy lost during our tour 
of duty in 1916. 



The Tragedies of a Bloodless Campaign 

mediately upon his arrival, lie died a few days 
later from peritonitis. There was a strong feeling 
of resentment among the officers and men of the 
First Illinois Infantry over the death of Darrow. 
Just a little more zeal and alertness on the part of 
the Base Hospital and the boy might have been 
saved. But what is an individual among the thou- 
sands of men that are treated in the Base Hospital 
at San Antonio I We had other illustrations of the 
loose-jointed inefficiency which characterized this 
institution. For example, let us consider another 
incident which concerned Darrow. AVhen word 
reached the regiment, just the evening before we 
were leaving San Antonio on a thirt}^ mile hike to 
New Braunsfeld, that Darrow had taken a turn for 
the worse and that they had wired for his mother. 
Major Amerson, Chief Surgeon of our regiment. 
Major Bittel, Darrow 's old Captain, and myself 
requisitioned the regimental and brigade motor 
cycles and went in haste to the Hospital. Major 
Amerson inquired at the office for someone who 
could throw light on Darrow 's condition. A medical 
captain, smoking a cigarette, with nicotine stains 
all over his hand, conducted us to Darrow 's side. 
"Who has been waiting on him?" said Major 
Amerson. "Some medical reserve man, but I 
don't remember his name." "Where is he now?" 
"Off duty." "Where is Darrow 's chart!" "The 
nurse is also off dut}^ and I don 't know where the 

211 



With the National Guard on the Border 

chart is." Not having any other source of infor- 
mation available, Major Anierson asked Darrow 
how he felt, and on his reply that he thought he was 
better, we left him — to die. When the news reached 
us. Major Amerson exclaimed, '^If only I could 
have had access to some real source of information, 
I might have saved him, but what could any one 
learn from that cigarette smoking, nicotine stained 
medical officer? Wh}^, do you think that there is 
any first-class hospital in the United States where 
a physician would be allowed to come into a sick 
ward smoking a cigarette?" 

But that was not the only criticism of the Base 
Hospital at San Antonio. The^^ required some no- 
tice before taking in the sick, but they never gave 
any notice when ready to dismiss them from the 
Hospital. Moreover, the Hospital was always so 
crowded with patients that they had only one de- 
sire, to dispose of them just as fast as they could. 
Consequently, we had men turned back to us not 
''ready for duty" but "ready for duty in about 
ten days or two weeks." Now men are not sup- 
posed to be sent back to a regiment which is living 
in the field until they are ready for service. Much 
less are they supposed to be dumped out of the 
Base Hospital when their regiment is twenty-five 
miles away and the only method of communication 
is rough army trucks. Yet this is what happened 
in more than one case. To illustrate, one of the 

212 



The Tragedies of a Bloodless Campaign 

boys recently operated upon for appendicitis was 
turned out of the Base Hospital; he went to the 
Quadrangle at the Fort about a mile distant and 
was offered accommodation to Leon Springs on an 
army truck. Afraid that the jolting would re-open 
his wound, he attempted to walk to Camp Wilson, 
which Avas about a mile and a half distant, where 
the Third and Fourth Illinois were encamped. It 
Avas too much for him, his Avound opened before he 
reached the camp and he requested someone to 
carry him to a hotel, from Avhence the house physi- 
cian sent him to the P. and S. Hospital. Then 
after a feAv days he Avas carried back to the 
Base Hospital to regain his strength before 
joining the regiment. This Avas undoubtedly an ex- 
ceptional case and AA^e Avere all convinced before 
getting rid of this 3^oung man that he Avas 
thoroughly yelloAV. Hoav much suffering he 
"posed" none of us Avill eA^er knoAv; but at any rate, 
his experience showed a lack of co-ordination be- 
tAveen the Hospital and the regiments in the field. 
Other similar experiences showed a real Aveakness 
in the Base Hospital's methods of discharging the 
men. No man should have been sent aAvay from 
the Base Hospital AAdthout their first liaAdng made 
provision for returning him decently and safely to 
his command. It seemed to be the rule that Avhen- 
ever a doctor in charge of a Avard decided that a 
boy was well enough to go back to the conmiand, 

213 



With the National Guard on the Border 

he gave him a slip to that effect and turned him out. 
One day, on coming into San Antonio, I found that 
two boys were going to be turned out in a day or 
so and sent to Camp Wilson to enjoy the hospital- 
ity of the Third and Fourth Illinois until our re- 
turn from Leon Springs. ''But," said I, ''the 
Third and Fourth Illinois are no longer at Camp 
Wilson, the only regiment left there is the Eighth 
Illinois, composed of negroes." So I requested the 
officers in charge of these wards to let the men 
remain at the Hospital until I could arrange for 
their suitable transportation to Leon Springs. 

It must not be thought that these or au}^ other 
criticisms are made in an unfriendly spirit. The 
regular army officers are, as a rule, splendid gentle- 
men, and as thoughtful, considerate and courteous 
as any that could be found. The mistakes that 
were made last summer were the mistakes of in- 
experience and of a colossal mushroom groAvth. 
The size of the Base Hospital was probably trebled 
after the National Guard Avas called into the ser- 
vice. So many additions, temporary and perma- 
nent were made ; so many new helpers, nurses and 
medical reserA^e men Avere called into the service 
that the mistakes made Avere perfectly natural 
under the circumstances. From the reports of the 
boys, they received the best of attention at the Base 
Hospital. They also spoke Avith appreciation of 
the food. 

214 



The Tragedies of a Bloodless Campaign 

It was an interesting experience to pass through 
the wards and hear a bit of uncensored border 
gossip. Probably two-thirds of the organizations 
along the International Line had their representa- 
tive in this mammoth hospital. Rumor said that 
from five to fifteen wounded men came in each day 
as the result of Mexican snipers. But if this is 
true, the muzzle of silence kept it from the Ameri- 
can people and the casual observer who inquired 
the why and Avherefore of the wounded in these 
wards, was informed that they were suffering from 
the accidental discharge of their own or another's 
firearms. This explanation was so plausible that 
one might have been inclined to accept it at its face 
value if reason and common sense did not lead to 
the belief that, where there was so much ill will, so 
many miles of International border to be patrolled 
and such abundant opportunities for treacherous 
snipers to get in their dirty work, all the men who 
came back from the border to the Base Hospital 
were not wounded by their own or some comrade 's 
carelessness. 

This divergence from the real caption of the 
chapter has not, I hope, been unacceptable. Re- 
turning now to the sorrows which came to the men. 
I am reminded of an incident which happened just 
after the trumpeter had blown ''taps." The tele- 
phone rang and he was told that there was a tele- 
gram for one of the boys, announcing the death of 

215 



With the National Guard on the Border 

his father. The news was really sadder than that, 
for the father had committed suicide after failing 
in business. The boy had been his father's assist- 
ant and felt that possibly his going away was re- 
sponsible for his father's death. There was noth- 
ing for this young man to do but return to Chicago 
and try to save what he could of his father's busi- 
ness. So he was given a leave of absence and later 
discharged from the service. This is another in- 
dication of the grip which business must ever hold 
on the guardsman, and a consequent limitation to 
his thorough responsibility as a soldier. As a vo- 
cation, business is a jealous mistress, brooking no 
rivals, Avhile on the other hand, Avar is the science 
of sciences, and he Avho half masters or half plays 
it, endangers not only himself but also his com- 
rades, nation and cause. 

However much the boys felt the loss of Ser- 
geant Darrow, or that of a beloved mother, father, 
sister or brother, the thing that impressed me as 
the greatest tragedy of the summer Avas Avhen a 
big six-foot, tAvo hundred and fifty pound man 
receiA'-ed a telegram that his baby boy three years 
old had been stricken A\T.th infantile paralysis. 
Those who have known the joy of possessing a 
child of three years, who have felt the cold dread 
Avhicli even the suggestion of losing it ma}^ cause, 
have some idea hoAv this helpless father felt, tAvelve 

216 



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With the National Guard on the Border 

Imndred miles from home, upon receiving news of 
the death of his baby boy. 

It will be observed that there was only one death 
in our regiment during the three and a half months 
we were in the service. Compare this with the 
story of '98, and the same regiment's mortality 
tables for the six and a half months it was in the 
federal service. Though our regiment did not lose 
a single man in battle during the Spanish- Ameri- 
can War, it lost eighty-four men from disease ; and 
even eighty-four to one does not express the real 
proportion of disease between the two summers. 
For virtually every soldier who returned from 
Cuba Avas either emaciated with disease or full of 
malaria, while those Avho came back from the Mex- 
ican border Avere as hard as rocks, and it would 
have been dangerous for them to have felt any bet- 
ter. The real proportion, therefore, between the 
summers of 1916 and 1898 is as follows : twelve 
hundred well men, minus one, are to one thousand 
sick men, minus eightj-four, as the sanitary effi- 
ciency of 1916 is to the sanitary ignorance of 1898. 
In other words, the doctors, they are the fellows 
who caused such a wonderful difference ; after mak- 
ing every allowance for the yellow fever in Cuba. 

For all that I ma^^ have Avritten that seems 
critical of the Regular Army Medical Corps, they 
deserve, in my opinion, the largest credit of any 
single department of the regular army Avitli which 

218 



The Tragedies of a Bloodless Campaign 

we came into contact. I believe that our o^vn medi- 
cal officers of the First Illinois Infantry can stand 
shoulder to shoulder with any like group from the 
regular army in their knowledge, proficiency or 
skill as students or practitioners of medicine and 
surgery. In fact, if I had to suhmit to a surgical 
operation, I think I should prefer to have our sur- 
geons do the work, but when it comes to sanitation, 
the regular army has just about reached perfection 
in its technique of preventive medicine. 

The reason for President Wilson's continuation 
in the White House for a second term may lie at 
the door of the Regular Army Medical Corps. For 
if the people of the United States had been called 
upon to pay the j)rice of '98 for the mobilization 
of its soldiers in the summer of 1916, 1 am confident 
that the American public would not have supported 
Woodrow Wilson for a second term. There have 
probably been many explanations of his victory at 
the polls, but apart from his support of the Adam- 
son law, I present this as one of the most impor- 
tant considerations — "the bloodless campaign of 
1916" — due not to the President's 'Hoo proud to 
fight" policies, but to the sanitary experts of the 
army. Without them he might have mobilized the 
Guard and still kept out of war with Mexico, but his 
act of mobilization alone would probably have cost 
more lives from disease than Mexican bullets could 
have killed in an open campaign of intervention. 

219 



CHAPTER X 
HUMOROUS INCIDENTS 

T T UMOR and tragedy are the lights and shadows 
-'- -^ that lend persiDective to human experiences. 
I daughter and tears are blended in our lives like 
the playful, sportive, intertwining of the sunshine 
and shade beneath the shelter of the oak. There 
are few places on this old earth where the shadows 
are so thick as to exclude the sunlight or where 
the rapture of the sunbeam is not heightened by 
the spiritual presence of its companion spirit, a 
bit of shade. Even heaven, according to Mark 
Twain, is made up of a mixture of jo^^ and sorrow, 
for he says we can only apioreciate the good things 
of life when we occasionally taste the bad, and I 
would sooner take Mark's word for it than that of 
any theologian to the contrary. 

To illustrate how close the connection of pleas- 
ure and unhappiness is, the day before we left 
Springfield one of the boys introduced me to his 
sweetheart avIio had just arrived from Chicago with 
his parents to bid him good-bye. In a jesting way 
I asked, "Are you going to get married today?'-' 
The soldier looked thoughtful, his sweetheart 
raised her eyebrows, and the boy's mother winced. 

220 



Humorous Incidents 

Behold this innocent and quite natural remark 
caused a storm. About two hours later I received 
a telephone call asking if I could come to the city 
and marry them. They had already wired to her 




The common carrier in Cananea. 



parents and secured their assent, but the young 
people urged me to come at once to the hotel and 
pacify his parents who were bitterly opposed to the 
wedding. So proceeding to the Saint Nicholas I first 
found the boy's mother who exclaimed, "0 wh}^ did 

221 



With the National Guard on the Border 

you say that, your remark kindled the smoldering 
embers and led them to do this foolish, foolish 
thing?" Then the father joined us and in a heart- 
broken voice said, "What earthl}^ reason or sense 
is there in a marriage at this time? Suppose he 
is killed!" To Avhich I answered, "Then his wife 
will draw a pension." So we proceeded to get the 
license, meeting a group of his Company on the 
street who immediately formed an escort of honor. 
Returning to the hotel they were married. Then 
the boy's parents refused to witness the marriage 
certificate, whereupon his comrades all volunteered 
to affix their signatures and vied with each other 
for the privilege. Their evident eagerness awak- 
ened a pang in the parental breasts and they both 
forthwith signed their names. Now wasn't this a 
beautiful example of the saline-admixture of ^oj^ 
AVedding-bells and parents' tears, it has always 
been thus. Passing out of the parlor where the 
ceremony had just been performed I saw another 
of our boys and his sweetheart deeply engrossed in 
a loving argument. Stopping for a moment to joke 
with them, he said, "I'm trying to make her con- 
sent to our marriage, but she won't do it." Pass- 
ing into the dining room where I had an engage- 
ment with some friends, I later saw this soldier 
lover and his girl come into the room and pay a 
dollar and a half for about five cents worth of food, 
the maximum amount which those who are desper- 

222 



o 







With the National Guard on the Border 

ately in love can eat. Then before I had finished 
ni}^ meal the head-waiter came to me and said 
"Some young people are waiting for yon in the 
parlor. ' ' After an honr 's diligent work on the part 
of an enthusiastic little hotel-exchange girl we lo- 
cated the county clerk, secured a marriage license 
and married them. Then calling the soldier's Com- 
pany connnander I secured a few hours leave of 
absence for his honeymoon. ■ 

Cupid was pretty busy during the last few days 
that we were in the mobilization camp. Yet^' even 
at that, he tried to make a better record while Ave 
were at San Antonio. I should not be surprised 
if the girls wlio married their sweethearts before 
they went to, the Border Avere not AAdser than their 
generation, and that some of the June Aveddings 
Avhich Avere temporarily postoned AAill be consum- 
mated in a sunnier clime and AAitli a fcAV changes 
in the parties of the second i3art. But the Illinois 
girls never relinquished their proprietary^ interest 
in the boys. Hardly had Ave gotten settled at Camp 
Wilson AA'hen one of them decided that it Avould be a 
good plan to "cheer some lonesome soldier on the 
Border." Seeing my name in the paper she de- 
cided to comfort me Avith a bright, attractive letter. 
Had I not been official comforter for all the wiA^es 
in the regiment as Avell as one of my oAvn I might 
at least haA'e ansAvered this connnunication, but in- 
stead I passed the letter oA^er to an eligible second 

224 



Humorous Incidents 

lieutenant who agreed to carry on the correspond- 
ence till death or marriage did them part. He re- 
ceived a great deal of cheer from this young lady, 
including cake, candy, and a box of cigars. 

This first letter to a lonesome soldier was so at- 
tractive that Mr. Grey of the Chicago Evening Post 
asked for permission to publish it and recom- 
mend that other girls follow the example of this 
patriotic young woman, which they forthwith did. 
Letters to ''lonesome soldiers" began to pour into 
the Chaplain's hands and there was no shortage of 
boys who were glad to answer them. In order to 
make the correspondence as interesting as possible 
I read all of these letters, trying to judge each girl's 
education and social position and choose a soldier- 
correspondent that would be compatible. As a re- 
sult there were many humorous things which came 
to light. One letter read as follows, ''Dear Chap- 
lain: I am not a flirt, and I don't want to corre- 
spond with just anybody. I go to Sunday school 
every Sunday and I would like to correspond with 
a Protestant young man. ' ' Another requested that 
I choose a soldier with "blue eyes, light hair, and 
about six-feet two in height, for I am very tall my- 
self." I got the hair and eyes all right but couldn't 
find the six-feet two, so compromised with some- 
thing just as good, five-feet six, for I knew that 
Cupid was blind and that eugenic matches were a 
myth. From another girl I received several boxes 

225 



With the National Guard on the Border 

of cigars and a request that if I could find a young 
man with whom I would be willing ' ' for my sister 
to correspond" that she would be glad to write to 
him. Getting rid of the cigars was easy, but choos- 
ing my quasi-brother-in-law was much harder. 
There were any number of men who would have 
delighted in corresponding with such a generous 
girl, but I quizzed them all as if they had been ask- 
ing for a daughter's hand and finally chose an ex- 
cellent young fellow. Even then I made a mistake, 
for on returning to Chicago he went to see this 
young lady just once. He found that she lived in 
a swell North Shore residence miles from the 
street car and not having a limousine he was faint- 
hearted, — the dub! The only letter that was pro- 
hibitive was from a young woman (!) who re- 
quested that if I could find "a young man about 
thirty-five years old who is free from all foolish- 
ness" she would be glad to correspond with him. 
I still have that letter and will be glad to turn it 
over to any gentle reader who thinks that he quali- 
fies and is mlling to run the risk of writing a letter 
and defraying the breach-of-promise suit that will 
follow. I received one other letter from a foreign 
woman that was so illiterate that I hastened to give 
it to our regimental clown, Avho was familiarly 
known as "Dutchy" or the "Kaiser." He received 
it gladly after first objecting that he was a Catholic 
and that probably I would not want to give it to 

226 



Humorous Incidents 

him because of his religious persuasion^ After 
easing his mind on this point he wrote to the lady 
at once and received a bulky answer in the next 
mail, through which illiterate mass he insisted that 
I should read. As I glanced through the pages to 
satisfy his mind he remarked, ' ' She says that she 
is young and unmarried but I think that she is old 
and married, what do you think, Chaplain? She 
seems to want to marry me. AVhat do 3^ou think, 
shall I marry her?" "To be sure, Dutchy, marry 
her, of course." In about a month, after much 
more love-making and incinerator work (for that 
was the only thing that Dutchy had sense enough 
to do) he was back again. "Chaplain, she was a 
widow with three children. When I found that 
out I told her it was all off, and now she says that 
she is going to sue me for breach of promise. ' ' To 
those who have only trodden the conventional paths 
of life all of this may seem ridiculously silly, but 
no work is too silly for an army chaplain to do if 
it gives any pleasure or renders any service to his 
boys. In the words of Omar Khayyam, the army 
chaplain must — 

Make the most of what we yet may spend, 

Before we, too, into the Dust descend. 

* * * * * 

Would you that spangle of Existence spend 
About the Secret — quick about it, Friend! 
A Hair perhaps divides the False and True — 
And upon ivhat, prithee, may life depend? 

227 



With the National Guard on the Border 

The First Illinois Infantry has some extremely 
interesting historical memorials and it was decided 
this summer to add to these a picture of every man 
who participated in the sunnner on the Border. 
For this reason orders were given the Company 
commanders that they should have pictures taken 
of their companies showing every man in each or- 
ganization, and that there "should be no dogs, 
women, civilians nor any other danni thing in these 
pictures." This order will be remembered as 
one of the most amusing things of the summer. 
It may sound a trifle harsh to those Avho do 
not understand the trials of a regimental com- 
mander, but if any critic could see the variety 
of mongrel dogs which are adopted by a mili- 
tary organization he would then understand the 
justice of this portion of the order at least. Then 
harsh as it may sound, women are a great nuisance 
to a military camp. It has been said that during the 
Civil War one of the Union generals loaded a boat 
full of camp followers and sent them away from his 
army. A military camp is no place for a woman, 
whether that woman be wife, sweetheart, inno- 
cently curious maiden or camp follower. The 
good women as Avell as the bad demoralize dis- 
cipline and reduce the efficiency of the organiza- 
tion. But the civilians are the limit. Some of them 
try to move their boarding house to your camp. 
Most of them are trying to sell something to the of- 

228 




— Copyright, Underwood and Underwood. 



Blanlset tossing for a camp pastime laas no equal for the soldiers 
on the border as they gently heave their protesting comrade into 
the air and give him the benefit of a bird's-eye view of the sur- 
rounding country. For the man in the blanket the sport loses its 
charm after the second toss. 



With the National Guard on the Border 

ficers and boys; and they all hang around asking 
foolish questions by the million. So I think that 
I have explained away any of the harshness that 
the Colonel's order seemed to carry and we have 
simply the pleasant memory of his unique way of 
expressing himself. But the Colonel was always 
so set in his ways that a good joke on him is not to 
be forgotten. 

On the trip to San Antonio while eating break- 
fast with Colonels Sanborn and Eddy our train 
pulled up at some little station in Oklahoma. Col- 
onel Eddy was on a diet and so I remarked that 
we might be able to get some milk for him. To 
which Colonel Sanborn answered, "They don't 
have milk in bottles at these small stations." 
' ' But, Colonel, they might have it in bulk. " " Try 
if you like, but I tell you now that it is impossible." 
Whereupon I called one of the natives who was 
passing and giving him an aluminum army cup 
requested him to buy some milk. "That's the last 
that you will ever see of that cup," said the Colonel. 
In a few minutes the man returned with the cup 
full of real milk that had not been devitalized by a 
separator. Not being able to resist the temptation 
I said, "Colonel, what about the cup?" "It was 
my suggestion in the first place," said he, "didn't 
I tell you they wouldn't have any bottled milk?" 

At another time the same day our train stopped 
"somewhere on the M. K. and T." and Richard 

230 



Humorous Incidents 

Henry Little, correspondent of the Chicago Herald 
and a scribbling knight of many wars, decided to 
get off a message to his paper. Immediately after 
he had disembarked our train pulled out, leaving 
him and a Mr. Wilson, Second Lieutenant of ' ' B " 
Co., in the depot. Those of us who were viewing 
the country from the dome of the caboose saw Mr. 
Wilson rush out and pursue the train down the 
right of way, while Mr. Little requisitioned a horse 
and buggy and raced down the country road run- 
ning parallel to the railroad track. In the mean- 
while every soldier on the train had become aware 
that somebody was left and about four-hundred 
men had their arms and heads out of the train win- 
dows attempting to signal the engineer. It was a 
merry bedlam. W^ith so many arms going the engi- 
neer could not get the conductor's signal at all, 
so that finally the latter jumped off of the train 
and getting out on the right of way signalled the 
engineer for a stop. After a few minutes the de- 
linquents arrived, Mr. Wilson nearer dead than 
alive and the correspondent with the solemn words, 
''Never again do I leave a troop train." 

Before going to Leon Springs we were warned 
by the citizens of San Antonio that we would find 
the red-bugs or jiggers quite numerous and that 
we had better prepare to meet the situation. The 
warning was as little heeded as George Washing- 
ton's advice to General Braddock with the result 

231 



With the National Guard on the Border 

that our visit culminated in the same disastrous 
way. We were literally eaten alive by these in- 
significant little pests. Not only the men but even 
the horses which we had taken with us from Illi- 
nois were bitten so badly that welts appeared all 
over their bodies. The number of remedies which 
immediately sprang into fame were as numerous 
as the household remedies for a cold. The way the 
officers and men mixed these remedies was like the 
confusion of tongues at the Tower of Babel. Some 
men recommended Life Bouy soap because it had 
carbolic acid in it, others were strong for Fels 
Naptha because of its alkali, still others used kero- 
sene oil, the doctors prepared a salve which con- 
tained a little bit of everything, and finally the 
Colonel had a sort of ink eradicator in two bottles, 
— apply one first he said and after that dried apply 
the other. I used them all, usually keeping a pan 
of water and a bar of Life Buoy beside my cot at 
night. Then Avhen some jigger visited my owl res- 
taurant in the wee small hours of the night I would 
serve him an a La Aqua Life Buoy Rub. In other 
words if this menu card is unintelligible to you, 
Avhen some jigger who had been overlooked began 
to feast upon my body I would dip the soap into the 
water and rub the spot energetically. Some of the 
men took a shower bath just before retiring and 
after making a great lather of their favorite soap 
let it dry on their bodies and then went to their 

232 



With the National Guard on the Border 

blankets hoping that they might be able to sleep. 
At night the men organized what they called jig- 
ger hunts. One would strip to the waist Avhile 
another held a candle and some jigger soothing 
syrup and looked over his body for the trouble- 
some places. I have never seen but one thing simi- 
lar to this and that was two monkeys engaged in 
the fraternal pastime of flea hunting. On passing 
the boys' pup-tents after taps two sounds smote 
your ears, gentle oaths and loud scratching — for 
while talking is prohibited after taps there is no 
rule against scratching. In retrospection our jig- 
ger experiences are very amusing, but not so then. 
The only boast I ever heard from Colonel Sanborn 
and one of his longest speeches was in connection 
with the jiggers. He said in derision of the seem- 
ing discomfort that they were causing ever^^body, 
"I once had half of the jiggers in Mexico on me at 
one time." 

In the same class with the jiggers came the ticks, 
scorpions and tarantulas. If you brushed against 
the mesquite trees or rested in the shade of the 
bushes you always had a fair chance to gather a 
crop of ticks. Then the scorpions and tarantulas 
were extremely friendly. If you did not shake 
your shoes in the morning you might put your foot 
on a tarantula. The same was true of your cloth- 
ing roll and bedding. On rainy nights, particularly, 
the scorpions craAvl into your tent and in their 

234 



Humorous Incidents 

search for the driest, warmest spot possible even- 
tually find their way np the sides of your cot and 
under your blanket. Some people even in their 
sleep object to having scorpions crawl over their 
faces. When anyone expressed this objection the 
scorpion usually left a sting and vanished into the 
night. Scorpion stings are not serious as many 
people think, else about half of our regiment would 
be dead, and not a few would have been dead, hypo- 
thetically speaking, many times. The treatment of 
scorpion stings is very simple; iodine is painted 
over the affected part and acts as a counter-irri- 
tant. Moreover the Texas tarantula seems to lack 
the venom of his southern cousin, his bite is not 
considered deadly. 

One of the cooks told of an amusing experience 
that throws some light on the food that the men 
were served after the government had furnished 
blanks ujdou which to requisition supplies. Major 
Davis had been inpecting the company's mess and 
his brow began to draw in a fro^^m. Without say- 
ing a word he turned his back and went away. He 
looked so angry that the cook was concerned lest 
there was something wrong and following the Ma- 
jor he saluted and said, "If there is anything 
wrong, Sir, I wish you would tell me." "Wrong, 
who said anything was wrong?" "Well, you 
looked so angry. Sir." "Angry? Well I guess I 
am, for we are not getting as good a mess as that 

235 



With the National Guard on the Border 

at the officers' table and have to pay a dollar a 
day for it." 

It would be base ingratitude not to mention 
Benny Eothschild of "D" Company, one of the 
premier cooks of the regiment. One day as I was 
passing Benny invited me to see a sight that would 
have inspired Raphael, Rembrandt, Rubens and 
Michelangelo to more surpassing achievements 
than they ever reached. He opened the oven door 
and revealed four Avonderfully juicy, deliciously 
bro^^med, Swift Premium Hams. After a moment 
of speechlessness, I said, ''Benny, we ought to 
have a photographer take a picture of that and 
send it to the city papers. It would make the United 
States Army overflow mth enlistments. Accept- 
ing Benny's invitation to return after taps and 
sample these hams I was on the job at the ap- 
pointed hour. As a result I was treated to one 
of the novel little incidents of camp life. A cer- 
tain rookie in "D" Company was not as cleanly 
as some of his tent mates thought that he ought 
to be ; and so they, vi et armis, stripped off his 
clothes, bore him to the bath-house, covered his 
body with fly paper and pointed to the shower 
baths as his only possible relief. But alas for the 
dirty rookie, the fly paper cleaved so closely to the 
skin that Avater alone would not relieve him, and 
application had to be made to the top-sergeant for 
tar soap to assist the process. 

236 



Humorous Incidents 

Other cooks that had the devotion of the men 
were Jack Allen of "A" Company and Jim David- 
son of "C." I shall never forget one morning at 
Leon Springs as Jim Davidson passed from the 
commissary with a cigarette in his month, a smile 
on his face and a box of canned goods in his arms. 
To every one who wonld listen he announced 
''Canned Chicken," and I question seriously 
whether the angels on that first Christmas night 
ever sang "Joy to the earth, good will to man" 
with any more feeling or enthusiasm than Jim 
threw into those simple but eloquent words, 
"Canned Chicken." Nothing counts more in the 
building up of an army than a well-balanced, well- 
cooked ration. It is better for a company to be 
short a commissioned officer than for it to want a 
good cook. As the Adjutant said in my hearing 
one day, "If the band is expected to furnish us 
any music we must see that they have a good cook 
for the Headquarters Company." The same thing 
might just as truly be said of any military unit 
from that of a company to an army corps. The 
cooks in the army hold the happiness and efficiency 
of the men in the hollow of their skillets ; a greasy, 
dirty, grouchy cook has three chances a day to 
spoil the stomachs and spirits of a hundred men. 
With an adjutant, a surgeon, three majors, and 
fifteen cooks who know the military game I be- 
lieve that I could organize a regiment that would 

237 




S 
O 



Humorous Incidents 

be second to none in the United States. All of the 
officers, including the a priori colonel, might not 
be able to pass the War Department's examina- 
tions, but then there are probably a good many 
generals in the European trenches ^¥ho couldn't do 
that and even Francisco Villa might have difficulty 
securing a second lieutenant's commission in the 
United States Army. 

As I visited among the boys and went through 
their company streets at night I saw a good many 
interesting problems they had to solve, which, 
while they will never go on the records of the War 
Department, were in their strategy and good com- 
mon sense much more astute and successful than 
the program of the General Staff or the cross- 
eyed policies of our government with relation to 
Mexico. In '^L" Company there was a Polish 
squad, whose corporal was Stanley Matuga. One 
night I found Corporal Matuga standing beside 
his pup-tent Avith the air of a conqueror. Asking 
the reason for his Napoleonic attitude he pointed 
to a large red-ants' nest about a foot from his 
tent. Owing to the linguistic limitations of Cor- 
poral Matuga his comrades explained the situation 
to me. It seems that every night when Matuga 
wrapped his blanket about him and sought the 
comfort of well-earned rest, that these ants per- 
sisted in returning to their nest over Matuga 's 
face. Now Matuga had not lost the pride of old 

239 



With the National Guard on the Border 

Poland during the few brief years of his residence 
in America. He still possessed the spirit of a race 
that rendered Europe a service second to none 
when it stemmed the tide of Mohammedan inva- 
sion and defeated the Turks beneath the walls of 
Vienna. So Corporal Matuga resented the contin- 
ual insult of having ants step all over his face; 
and securing a quantity of crude oil he poured a 
ring about their nest, then tilled their subterra- 
nean home with more of his incendiary fluid 
and ignited the oil at both places. Love and logic 
are wasted on ants, they don't understand the lan- 
guage. Neither do the Mexicans. "We who have 
been their best friends are more hated by them 
than any other people on the face of the globe. 
Every act of kindness, all of our forbearance, the 
protection which our country has given them 
against European aggrandizement, they have an- 
swered by insulting our flag, robbing our citizens, 
murdering our women and children and hating ev- 
erything American. President Wilson sent our 
Army and Navy to Vera Cruz to enforce a salute 
to the Stars and Stripes ; did he get it 1 Not much ! 
They just continued to walk on our faces and dis- 
turb our wonted peace and quietude. Why? Be- 
cause President AVilson forgot that like the ants 
the Mexican people haven't a college education 
and he has tried to reason and love them out of a 
habit which they have formed of stepping on our 

240 



Humorous Incidents 

national pride and honor whenever they feel like it. 

Another problem which the boys had to meet in 
making their pup-tents comfortable Avas the large 
number of embedded surface stones upon which 
they had to sleep. I have seen them remove a 
stone with their bayonets that was as large as an 
ordinary pillow, and that would be only one of a 
number that would have to be taken out before 
their pup-tents were habitable. Nor was it to be 
supposed that at the end of a long day's hike they 
would be able to accomplish such a task the same 
day they arrived at a new camp, and so they some- 
times slept for a night or so with these huge bumps 
prodding them in the back. 

The situations which all of the national guard 
organizations had to meet in the securing of horses 
and mules was the occasion of rare humor. We 
were probably in San Antonio a month before we 
received more than a dozen animals. It was only 
a day or so before we were to leave for our first 
hike that anything like a sufficient number was is- 
sued to us. Why wild horses and mules should 
have been issued to us at such a time is beyond 
the comprehension of any sensible person. Cer- 
tainly the regular army would not have had such 
treatment, and nearly all of our boys were city 
bred, knowing absolutely nothing about the twin- 
six cylinders of a mule. One of the lieutenants of 
our machine gun company, a frail man himself, has 

241 



With the National Guard on the Border 

thus described the way in which the government 
issued its mules to the National Guard: ''We got 
orders to go over to the re-mount station and get 
our mules, and this is what I saw. A regular army 
officer seated upon a camp-chair ordered the cow- 
boys to rope our mules. From the drove of hun- 
dreds and thousands the required number were 
separated. Then one of these was lassoed and a 
half dozen burly negroes dragged him into the 
presence of the Captain. 'What is his number?' 
says the Captain, for each mule and horse has a 
government number cut into its hoof. 'Number 
436, Sir,' says the supervising sergeant. 'Clean 
the hoof off and bring him a little nearer so that 
I can see it,' says the Captain. So the six negroes 
yank the mule up a little nearer and the sergeant 
takes a long pole with a mop on the end of it and 
washes or scrapes off the mule's hoof. The Cap- 
tain leans forward in his chair, verifies the num- 
ber, writes it down on his memorandum, and turn- 
ing to a one hundred and twenty pound national 
guardsman says, 'All right, take your mule.' 
Thus these Missouri cherry-blossoms passed into 
the possession of the National Guard. Is it any 
wonder that these Sons of Missouri — unbroken, 
wicked as Satan, stronger than a grass rope — 
sometimes escaped from the National Guard? 
The first hike that we took, the Seventh Illinois 
Infantry hitched up their mules the night before 

242 



Humorous Incidents 

so that they might be ready to start the next morn- 
ing. Even at that it was ahnost impossible for the 
supply wagons or machine guns to keep up mth 
the organizations. After we had been out on a 
hike for two or three hours along would come a 
machine gun company that belonged to some reg- 
iment ahead of us. If you have ever seen anyone 
try to drive chickens you have an idea how those 
mules behaved. The only sure way to make them 
go forward was to back two mules together and 
let them Avear each other out. If we had ever had 
an action on one of our earlier hikes the machine 
guns would have been of as much service as 
' ' canned-dog. ' ' 

Music was a big factor in the lives of the boys. 
On the march, in the company streets at night, 
and on a rainy day within the tents there was al- 
ways a song in the air. I spent the whole of a very 
disagreeable afternoon listening to the vocal and 
instrumental music of "M" Company. They had 
brought with them from Chicago their little hand- 
organ, and to its accompanying strains they sang 
everything from sacred music to the latest popu- 
lar ''hits." "L" Company boasted of a splendid 
quartet. "H" Company was blessed with a mem- 
ber who played an harmonica as if it were a whole 
orchestra. I have seen the entire Company gath- 
ered about him at night singing one song after the 
other. There is nothing finer that soldiers can do. 

243 



With the National Guard on the Border 

It uplifts the spirit of the camp and makes every 
one from the Colonel to the youngest rookie feel 
contented and secure. More than once I have 
heard the ofificers say, "When they are singing we 
know that everything is all right." Some of the 
companies sang songs which were elegant, others 
songs that were vulgar. The songs that companies 
sing serve as criteria of character by which you 
can not only judge the standard of the boys but 
even more the character' of their officers. The fa- 
vorite song of the regiment was : 

I want a girl just like the girl 

That married dear old dad; 
She was a pearl, and the only girl 

That daddy ever had ; 
A good, old-fashioned girl 

With heart so true, 
One who loves nobody else but you ; 
I want a girl just like the girl 

That married dear old dad. 

The men of "A" Company had a new version of 
the "Old Oaken Bucket" wliich they accommo- 
dated to their company officers: 

The Old Company Tooth Brusli 
The Old Company Tooth Brush 
The Old Company Tooth Brush 

That hung in the Sink; 
First it was Borgmeier's, 
Tlien it was Cheney's, 
Then it was Frisbie's, 

244 



Humorous Incidents 

And. now it is ours; 
The Old Company Tooth Brush 
The Old Company Tooth Brush 
The Old Company Tooth Brush 
That hung in the Sink. 

For the benefit of any visitor the boys would 
slightly change the words and hospitably invite 
him to share the use of their company brush. 



245 




Colonel Joseph B. Sanborn 
Commanding First Illinois Infantry, N. G. 



APPENDIX 

HISTORY OF THE FIRST ILLINOIS 
INFANTRY* 

(1874-1917) 

T^VERY organization of value to the public is 
-'-^ known favorably or unfavorably by its his- 
tory. If that history has been creditable it be- 
comes an element of stability and strength as the 
years pass. If its traditions are the result of high 
ideals, and its past record has been uniformly 
good, the active members have an incentive to 
maintain these traditions and to add new glory 
and attempt larger and more honorable achieve- 
ments for their organization. The regimental 
spirit of the First Illinois Infantry has never wa- 
vered because in its beginning it was started on 
the highest plane by men of clean cut character 
and forceful, enthusiastic ability. 

The first meeting looking to the organization of 
a regiment of militia in Chicago was held on the 
evening of August 25, 1874, in response to a call 



*I wish to express my obligation to Captain Harry Francis Keator 
from whose historical sketch of the First Infantry in the Official Program 
of the National Military Tournament I have drawn most of the data and 
portions of the narrative for this chapter. 

247 



With the National Guard on the Border 

in the newspapers inviting all young men inter- 
ested in the formation of a military organization 
to meet at the Grand Pacific Hotel. The gathering 
was well attended and very enthusiastic. It Avas 
followed by a second meeting on August 28th, at 
which time the charter members were enrolled. 
Subsequent meetings were held early in September 
at the Sherman House and at the Tremont House. 
Guerdon S. Hubbard, Jr., very generously offered 
his building on State Street, without compensa- 
tion, for the use of the embryonic regiment, until 
definite arrangements could be made for an ar- 
mory. The next meeting was held at that place on 
September 8, 1874, where Companies A, B and C 
were enrolled, and as a result the oldest military 
organization in the State of Hlinois came into ex- 
istence. 

The organizers of the First Infantry were rep- 
resentative ^'^oung men from the finest families in 
the City of Chicago. Its charter-roll bespeaks cul- 
ture, wealth, influence and leadership. Man^^ in- 
dependent organizations wanted admittance as 
soon as the success of the Regiment was assured, 
but few were received. General Frank T. Sher- 
man was elected Major of the Battalion, and on 
the accession of Companies D, E and F, was elected 
lieutenant-Colonel. The first regimental staff ap- 
pointed by Lieutenant-Colonel Sherman consisted 
of First Lieutenant James H. Haynie, Adjutant; 

248 



Appendix 

First Lieiiteniint. iCharles H. Gillespie, Quarter- 
master; Major Ben C. Miller, Surgeon; Captain 
Henry Cooper, First Assistant-Surgeon; First 
Lieutenant E. W. Sawyer, Second Assistant-Sur- 
geon; Captain David Swing, Chaplain. 

In 1875 the Regiment's strength Avas increased 
to ten companies and A. C. McClung was elected 
Colonel. The same year on May 13th, General J. 
D. Webster, on behalf of Mrs. Jesse Whitehead 
and a number of other young ladies, presented the 
Regiment with its first stand of colors. On the 
afternoon of the same day, the Regiment made its 
first appearance on the streets in uniform, acting 
as escort to the Grand Army of the Republic at 
its annual meeting. The showing made was phe- 
nomenal. Eight months prior there was not a 
man, uniform nor gun on hand as the nucleus for 
a military organization, but on this day the Reg- 
iment turned out mth ten companies fully organ- 
ized, armed and equipped with some five hundred 
and twenty men in line. The effect on the citizens 
of Chicago was in the nature of a genuine surprise 
party, and the Regiment sprang at a bound into 
the great popularity which it has ever since 
retained. 

In 1878 the question of a permanent armory was 
agitated; and after much hard work and a great 
deal of diplomacy, the Union Mutual Life Insur- 
ance Company was induced to erect the old Jack- 

249 





-^^t'^^ ' ' - ' 


iJHHH 


^ 


■ ■ . .■^.^^^!^^ 




,^^P*' -« 


^N 







Lieutenant-Colonel James M. Eddy 
First Illinois Infantry, N. G. 



Appendix 

son Street Armory and issue a ten years' lease to 
the Regiment. The armory was formally dedi- 
cated October 29, 1878. At the end of its ten year 
lease, it was evident to everyone that the armory 
was inadequate and that it would be folly to renew 
their lease for another term of years. In order 
to provide a permanent and beautiful home for 
the Regiment an Armory Committee was ap- 
pointed and out of this there grew the First In- 
fantry Armory Association. The ground for the 
new armory at Michigan Boulevard and 16th 
Street was broken on Saturday, April 12, 1890, by 
Colonel Chas. R. E. Koch, in the presence of the 
entire Regiment. The corner stone was laid on 
Saturday, July 12, 1890, amid very elaborate cer- 
emonies. The armory was formally occupied Sep- 
tember 8, 1891. Unfortunately, it was destroyed 
by fire in 1893, but was rebuilt and occupied by 
the Regiment a second time in October, 1894. This 
is a splendid home for a regiment with handsomely 
furnished club rooms, billiard room, bowling al- 
leys, rifle and revolver ranges, gymnasium and 
shower baths. But after twenty-three years of 
service is now inadequate and Avill probably be re- 
placed in the near future with a million dollar 
home for Chicago 's oldest and best Regiment. 

In December, 1890, Companies C and I of the 
Fourth Infantry, known as the Oakland Rifles, 
were transferred to the First Infantry as Com- 

251 



With the National Guard on the Border 

panies L and M, thus completing the twelve com- 
panies of onr Regiment; and so it remained until 
the summer of 1916 when through the re-organiza- 
tion of the Guard and the regular army fifteen 
companies were required for each regiment, the 
three additional units being called the Headquar- 
ters, Supply and Machine Gun Companies. 

There are three things of Avhich the First In- 
fantry may justly be proud, viz., its influence in 
cementing the good-Avill of the South and North, 
the thorough and expeditious services it has ren- 
dered the State of Illinois in seasons of crisis, and 
the immortal sacrifices of 1898. 

It can be safely said that no National Guard or- 
ganization in the United States has travelled more 
widely nor rendered a larger service of friend- 
liness and good will than the First Infantry of 
Illinois. The First has ever been the representa- 
tive of Chicago and Illinois. Its spirit has, there- 
fore, never been either provincial, mean or belit- 
tling. No racial nor sectional prejudice has 
marked its life, it has always been generous and 
friendly to other organizations because knowing 
its OA\ai worth and high standards it could be dem- 
ocratic without becoming vile. In its ranks as pri- 
vates are always to be found men of sucli ability 
that they would instantly be seized upon and com- 
missioned officers in less fortunate regiments. But 
many of them have proudly said in my hearing 

252 




Major Abel Davis 
First Illinois Infantry, N. G. 



With the National Guard on the Border 

that they would rather be privates in the First 
Illinois Infantry than officers in any other organ- 
ization they knew. There are artists, writers, law- 
yers, doctors, druggists, chemical engineers ad in- 
finitum, who wear no mark of distinction other 
than that which is given to them by the fact that 
they are members of the First Infantry of Illinois. 

Men of this type are not often petty in their 
thinking nor narrow in their prejudices. It is not 
to be wondered, therefore, that on May 30, 1895, 
the First Illinois Infantry fired three volleys over 
the graves of the Confederate soldiers buried at 
Oakwood Cemetery on the dedication of the Con- 
federate Monument. That the South appreciated 
this honor to her dead was shown by the reception 
of the First on its southern trip in November of 
the same year, when the regiment acted as escort 
to the Citizens' Association of Chicago on their 
trip to the Cotton States and International Exposi- 
tion at Atlanta and through the South. 

On Friday, November 8, 1895, the Regiment with 
the Veteran Corps and band left Chicago for a trip 
through the South. The first stop was at Nash- 
ville where the citizens had made elaborate prep- 
arations for their entertainment. Rain spoiled 
everything except the band and glee club concerts 
which were given that evening at the skating rink. 
When the band opened its concert with a medley 
including "Dixie" and "My Maryland," two com- 

254 



Appendix 

panies of Confederate Veterans started a yell that 
drowned the music. All Nashville joined in their 
entertainment. The next morning, the Regiment 
arrived at Atlanta, where they formed an impos- 
ing feature of Illinois Day at the Exposition, 
marching from the City to the Exposition Grrounds 
along the famous Peach Tree Avenue. Leaving 
Atlanta Tuesday evening they arrived in Savan- 
nah Wednesday. Here the citizens and military 
organizations gave them a royal welcome. In the 
morning they gave a street parade and in the after- 
noon a review, drill and parade on the military 
reservation of the city, theirs being the first 
northern organization which was ever allowed on 
the grounds. The same evening they entrained 
for Charleston, South Carolina, arriving there 
about eleven o 'clock the next morning. The people 
of the city had been waiting for hours in anticipa- 
tion of the parade and in order not to disappoint 
them it was carried out immediately in spite of 
the fact that the men had had no breakfast. At 
about two o'clock breakfast and dinner were com- 
bined in one without bad results. In the afternoon 
the Regiment was shown around the city and many 
were taken down the Bay to Fort Sumter, Sulli- 
van's Island, and other points of historic interest. 
On Friday morning the Regiment visited Augusta, 
a city which at that time retained all the charac- 
teristics of ante-bellum days. As usual, they were 

255 




Major John V. Clinnin 
First Illinois Infantrv, N. G. 



Appendix 

hospitably entertained and shown local points of 
interest. The next morning they were in Chatta- 
nooga where the day was spent in ^^.siting the his- 
toric battlefields of Missionary Eidge and Lookout 
Mountain. The following day they arrived in Cin- 
cinnati where the armory of the First Regiment 
of Ohio was placed at their disposal. After a very 
agreeable day the Regiment again embarked, ar- 
riving home on Monday morning after a delightful 
tour of practically ten days. This trip was an ex- 
tensive one for a military organization the size of 
the First, and is noteworthy because of the fact 
that there was not a single breach of discipline nor 
of deportment, neither an accident of any kind. 

In 1898 the Regiment had planned an extensive 
tour through Canada, purposing to visit Toronto 
and Montreal, and return home by way of Boston, 
New York, Washington and Gettysburg; but the 
plans were abandoned on account of the Spanish- 
American War. 

In October, 1901, the First acted as escort to 
the Grovernor of Illinois at the Pan-American Ex- 
position in Buffalo. 

On July 16, 1904, the Regiment visited the Lou- 
isiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, remaining 
there for a week. Every member of the Regiment 
was provided with a white duck uniform, to be 
worn when off duty at the Fair. As usual they 
created a very favorable impression upon the pub- 

257 



With the National Guard on the Border 

lie as well as the officers of the Exposition and of 
the United States Army stationed in St. Louis. 

Again in 1906 the First Infantry was chosen to 
act as the escort of honor for the Honorable 
Charles S. Deneen, Governor of Illinois, and for 
the Illinois- Vicksbnrg Military Park Commission 
at the dedication of the $250,000 memorial temple 
erected in honor of the Illinois soldiers Avho fell 
in the siege of Vickshurg. On this occasion the 
Regiment visited Jackson, Vicksburg, Baton 
Eonge, and MemiDhis. This was one of the most 
interesting trips in the history of the First Infan- 
try, and the princely, world-famed reputation for 
hospitalit}^ of the South- was fully maintained 
throughout the entire trip. 

Finally in July of 1915, as the escort for Mayor 
Thompson of Chicago, the First Infantry, A^i.th its 
gentlemen's band, its machine guns, mules, horses, 
hospital corps and indeed everything except wag- 
ons and ammunition made the most memorable 
trip of all to the San Diego and Panama Exposi- 
tions. We visited Kansas City, Mo., Las Vegas, 
N. M., Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, 
Salt Lake City, and Denver. At Kansas City we 
gave a parade ; at Las Vegas the band gave a con- 
cert and I preached a sermon, standing on a camp 
chair in the city park, to Mexicans, Indians, Amer- 
icans, and soldiers. At Los Angeles we Avere met 
l)y a buncli of old First Infantry boys who verily 

258 



Appendix 

wept to see the old Regiment and wined and dined 
and entertained us as if it was the last chance 
the}^ would ever have to see the hoys of the First. 
At San Diego we gave a parade, and Mayor 
1'hompson entertained the officers at dinner. The 
chief memory I have of this dinner was my sym- 
pathy for Mrs. Thompson who had to dance with 
all the officers and reporters at the hanquet. 
''Poor thing," thought I, "she has a harder job 
than a preacher's wife." At San Francisco we 
acted as the escort of honor for Governor Dunne, 
hut Illinois Day was ruined hy the sad news of the 
Eastland disaster. After -several days here we re- 
turned home hy way of Salt Lake City, where we 
were royally entertained with a concert in the tab- 
ernacle and a dip in the Lake. At Denver we were 
given another wonderful reception and banquet by 
the citizens of the City and the National Guard of 
the State. 

The First Infantry has represented Chicago and 
Illinois in the South, the East and the West, and 
wherever it has gone it has so conducted itself that 
the names of Illinois, Chicago and the First In- 
fantry have come to be synonymous of nobility, 
patriotism and a united Republic. It has aided in 
healing the wounds of the Civil War, it has stirred 
cities and states with a revelation of what the Na- 
tional Guard can become, and it has opened the 

259 




Major Edward Bittel 
First Illinois Infantry, N. G. 



Appendix 

eyes of thousands to the orderliness and gentility 
of the ''Dandy First." 

The distinctive services to the State of Illinois 
in the suppression of riots have been many. 

In February, 1875, a riotous demonstration was 
made upon the building of the Relief and Aid So- 
ciety. The prompt assembling of the First Infan- 
try and the knowledge that it was fully armed and 
equipped, ready for instant duty, probably had a 
greater effect than any other cause in preventing 
an outbreak. 

The Regiment's first experience in actual serv- 
ice was in the memorable railroad riots of 1877. It 
was several times attacked by mobs but succeeded 
by the free use of the bayonet in dispersing them 
without firing a single shot or taking a single life. 
On the day following the railroad riots, the Reg- 
iment left Chicago by train for Braidwood where 
it assisted in quelling a riot among the coal miners. 

Nearly ten years later, the Regiment was called 
into service to assist in quelling the riots at the 
Union Stock Yards. On arriving at Forty-third 
Street the troops were marched across the viaduct 
on which a large crowd of men was assembled. As 
the soldiers advanced the crowd retired. "When 
the command entered the district known as ' ' Pack- 
ing-town" the mob, which numbered about seven 
thousand, precipitately fled. 

It was not until eight years later that the Regi- 

261 



With the National Guard on the Border 

rnent was called again, and then it made a record 
for prompt mobilization under difficulties. A 
strike was on among, the coal miners of the State 
and some violence had occurred, l)ut there was no 
intimation that a Chicago regiment would be 
needed. The call came al)out two o'clock in the 
afternoon of June 6, 1894. The summer half- 
holidays had just commenced and the rifle range 
at Cam]3 Logan, near the AVisconsin State Line, 
was open. As a result the members of the Regi- 
ment were scattered all over the city and suburbs 
and man}'- were at the range, but at seven o'clock 
on the same evening the organization, fully 
equipped, marched from the armory to the Illinois 
Central Depot and the next morning was at Pana 
in the southern joart of the State. From all ac- 
counts, a warm reception was expected ])ut none 
developed. A month later, the Regiment was 
called into service on account of the "Pullman" 
or "Debs" railwa}^ strike. This service lasted 
from twenty-seven to thirty-three days, the Reg- 
iment being withdrawn in detachments. It is sig- 
nificant that the organization was on duty for such 
a long time, executing every order and perform- 
ing every duty with promptness and without fear 
or favor, and returned to the armory bearing the 
commendation of the vast majority' of the strikers 
as well as of the corporate interests. 

On August 15, 1908, the Regiment was again 

262 




— Courtesy, Gibson, Sykcs & Powlcr. 

Surgeon-Major George C. Amekson 
First Illinois Infantry, N. G. 



With the National Guard on the Border 

called into active service to assist in quelling the 
race riots at Springfield. The call was received 
at eleven a.m. on Saturday, a half-holiday, when 
members of the Regiment were preparing to take 
the usual week-end trips to escape a hot Sunday 
in the city. Seventy-five men with Colonel San- 
born were at Camp Logan Avhere they were en- 
gaged in a competition for places on the Illinois 
State Rifle Team. A special train was ordered 
and they reached Chicago in time to leave mth the 
Regiment at three o'clock for Springfield where 
they arrived that night at nine o'clock. The Reg- 
iment was immediately detailed to patrol and 
guard duty. Five days of work, under a broiling- 
hot sun, restored order sufficiently to warrant the 
Regiment's return to Chicago. 

Finally, the First served in the War A\T.th Spain 
as the First Infantry Illinois Volunteers and made 
its full sacrifice to free Cuba from the yoke of tyr- 
anny and vindicate the honor of our country. 
Eighty-four of our boys were buried at Santiago, 
at sea, at Tampa, at Camp Wickoff, etc. But this 
was only a part of the sacrifice, for those who re- 
turned were full of fever, chills and malaria, more 
dead than alive. 

When the Maine was destroyed in Havana har- 
bor in the spring of 1898, and Avar Avith Spain be- 
came a certainty, recruits came to the First as 
never before, every company's emergency list Avas 

264 



Appendix 

full to overflowing. When President McKinley's 
call for volunteers Avas made, the Regiment imme- 
diately responded as an organization and left for 
Springfield on the evening of April 26th under the 
command of Colonel H. L. Turner, Lieutenant- 
Colonel Geo. V. Lauman, Majors Jos. B. Sanborn, 
Edgar B. Tolman, and James M. Eddy. On Fri- 
day, May 13th, the First was mustered into the 
United States service. By orders from the gov- 
ernment, ever^^ company had been cut do^vn to 
eighty-one men and three officers. On May 18th, 
the Regiment entrained for the National Military 
Park at Chickamauga, Georgia. 

In a beautiful camp near the Alexander Bridge 
in the National Military Park, the real preparation 
for the work ahead began, — equipment Avas per- 
fected, a wagon train organized, and ammunition 
issued. The constant efforts of the officers and the 
enthusiastic and intelligent co-operation of the 
men were soon felt, and when the inspection by 
army officers Avas made for the purpose of select- 
ing a feA¥ regiments from the many to proceed to 
Tampa, Florida (the port of embarkation for 
Cuba), the First was one of the feAv chosen. 

Marching across the country to Ringgold, Geor- 
gia, the First entrained on June 2nd for Tampa. 
On arriving there it relieved the First United 
States Infantry on Picnic Island and took up the 
duty of guarding the docks, railroad terminals and 

265 




Captain William Y. Hendrox 
Adjutant of the First Illinois Iiifaiitrv, N. G. 



Appendix 

transports at Port Tampa, Drill was not neglected, 
however, and the work of instruction went on at 
night as well as in the day. Because of the short- 
age in transports the Regiment did not sail with 
the Fifth Army Corps to Santiago, a memor^^ very 
unpleasant to the men of '98. So they stayed be- 
hind and continued to work and hope. Here three 
hundred recruits joined the Regiment, raising the 
strength of each company to one hundred and six 
men and three officers. Here also was created, hj 
details of officers and men, a provisional compan^^ 
of engineers which later was with General Miles 
in Porto Rico. 

Late in June there was another inspection and 
two volunteer regiments, the First Illinois and the 
First District of Columbia, were chosen from the 
dozen or more encamped about Tampa to form a 
part of the first re-inforcing expedition. On June 
30th, the.y sailed on the steamers ''Gate City" and 
'X^ity of Macon," forming with the vessels which 
carried Randolph's Artillery Brigade and the 
First District of Columbia, and the gunboats con- 
voying them, quite an imposing fleet. After pass- 
ing many of the vessels of Sami3son's and Schley's 
historic fleets at Guantanamo, the First Hlinois 
Volunteers landed at Siboney, Cuba, on the 9th and 
lOtli of July. Leaving a detachment of three hun- 
dred men at Sibone^^ for duty at the yellow fever 
hospital and on commissary work, the First 

267 




Captain Carroll M. Gale 
First Illinois Infantry, N. G. 



Appendix 

marched to the front on the afternoon and evening 
of the 10th and went into the trenches on the San 
Juan hills between Colonel Roosevelt's Rough 
Riders on the left and the First District of Colum- 
bia on the right. There they remained in mud and 
almost constant rain until the surrender of the 
city and the Spanish Army on the 17th. 

Then the battalions were separated, and for the 
next month guarded Spanish prisoners, rustled 
commissary and quartermaster's stores, and made 
themselves generall}^ useful, all the time fighting 
the fever and seeing the thoroughbred comrades of 
3'esterday fall beneath this dread disease. On the 
25th of August, the First Infantry Illinois Volun- 
teers dropped cloA\ai Santiago Bay aboard the 
"City of Berlin," the last regiment of the Fifth 
Army Corps to leave the Island of Cuba. 

It was with pleasure not unmixed with sorrow 
that the Regiment took its last long look at the 
quaint Spanish cit}^, the castle of Moro, the wrecks 
of the Merrimac and Mercedes, for the grave held 
many of their comrades, others were in hospitals 
and many had long since been sent North to linger 
and die. On September 1st, the Regiment reached 
Camp Wickoff at Montauk, Long Island, N. Y., 
and on the 7th left for Chicago. But it was not 
until November 17th that they were mustered out 
of the Federal service and became once again cit- 

269 



With the National Guard on the Border 

izen soldiers — the First Infantry, Illinois National 
Guard. 

The story of 1916 is told in previous chapters. 
One thing remains; gathered about the First Illi- 
nois Infantry is a splendid group of men who are 
kno^^ai as the Veteran Corps, and who occupy the 
same relationship to our Regiment as the G. A. R. 
to the armies of the Union. These are great fel- 
lows who cannot relinquish entirely their love for 
the game nor their devotion and fond memories as 
soldiers of the First. God Mess them all! In those 
grand old gray uniforms, ivith their jolly, manly 
sivinging stride, they are the living embodiment of 
the noble achievements and high ideals ivhich have 
ever characterised the '"Dandy First." They are 
not "dead ones" either, but are full of the "pep" 
that characterized them when they bore the stand- 
ard of the First Infantry through riots and 
strikes and the campaign of '98. Moreover when 
we were on the Border last summer they busied 
themselves in relieving the dependents that were 
left behind. So much so that some of the boys' 
families got better care from the Veteran Corps 
than they did when the boys were at home. Now 
the Veteran Corps is waiting and watching to see 
just what they can do for the old regiment. They 
are a live bunch with their hearts always in the 
right place. To give the names of tlie dis- 
tinguished citizens of Chicago wlio have been 

270 



Appendix 

members of the First and associated later 
with its Veteran Corps would be like calling 
the roll of Chicago's Blue Book. The young 
man who enlists in the First Infantry of Il- 
linois is to be congratulated for he immediately be- 
comes heir to the noblest traditions and the finest 
comradeship that Chicago can afford. For three 
years I was a student in the Universit}^ of Chi- 
cago, for two years I Avas pastor of a church in 
that city, but the rarest fellowship, the dearest 
memories I have of Chicago cluster about the Ar- 
mory at 16th and Michigan and my association 
with the officers and men of the ' ' Dandv First. ' ' 



271 



